GECs
Zee whizz: promoters warrant their faith with a Rs 3,143-crore top-up
Sunbright Mauritius bets big on Zee at 16 per cent premium, as board also waves through ESOP 2026
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises isn’t short of drama, and Tuesday’s board meeting served up a plot twist worthy of prime time. The broadcaster has approved a preferential issue of up to 24,94,85,563 fully convertible warrants to Sunbright Mauritius Investments, a promoter group entity putting real skin, and real cash, into the game.
Priced at Rs 126 apiece, the warrants add up to a tidy Rs 3,143.52 crore, pitched at a premium of 11.86 per cent to the Sebi floor price and 16.33 per cent over Tuesday’s closing price on the NSE. Sunbright will cough up 25 per cent upfront Rs 31.5 per warrant with the remaining 75 per cent due whenever it exercises conversion, any time over the next 18 months. Miss the deadline, and the warrants lapse, forfeiting the upfront cash. No strings attached, except for those very literal 18 months of them.
Each warrant converts into one Re 1 face-value equity share, and once fully converted, Sunbright’s stake balloons from a standing start of nil to up to 20 per cent of Zee’s fully diluted capital. That’s promoter money talking louder than any quarterly results call, a bet on Zee’s turnaround narrative that the market will be watching closely.
The board didn’t stop there. It also greenlit ESOP 2026, an employee stock option plan covering up to 3,74,22,835 options, exercisable at the same Rs 126 price tag, on the recommendation of the nomination and remuneration committee. Vesting terms and other juicy details are being saved for the shareholders’ meeting which the board has also decided to convene, seeking sign-off on both the warrants and the ESOP.
Ashish Agarwal, company secretary, confirmed the board huddled from 3 pm to 6.27 pm over three hours to greenlight what could be Zee’s biggest vote of confidence from its own promoters in years.
Warrants, ESOPs, promoter faith and a premium price tag: Zee’s board has served up a plot even its own soaps would envy, now it’s over to shareholders to decide if they’re buying the storyline.
