Zee Entertainment gains 8%, inches towards 52-week high

In the past two days the stock has rallied 13% to Rs 336.20, and is closer to its 52-week high of Rs 362.85

Shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises were up 8 per cent at Rs 336.20 on the BSE in Wednesday's intra-day trade, gaining 13 per cent in the past two trading days, after Punit Goenka, MD and CEO of Zee said that merger talks between the company and Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) are in final stages of stitching up.

The stock of the broadcasting & cable TV operator inched towards its 52-week high of Rs 362.85, touched on September 23, 2021. The counter saw huge trading volumes today with a combined 21.2 million equity shares having changed hands on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.26 per cent at 58,748 points at 11:40 am.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises and SPNI had announced a merger in September of their India businesses with Sony holding the majority stake. About 53 per cent of the merged entity would be owned by Sony and the rest by Zee’s holders, according to the non-binding agreement signed in September. CLICK HERE FOR REPORT

While announcing September quarter (Q2) results on November 11, 2021, the company's management stated that the due diligence process for the Zee and SPNI merger is progressing well. "The successful competition of this, along with shareholder approval for the deal, would be the key near-term triggers for a re-rating," according to analysts at Emkay Global Financial Services.

While the Q2 print was below the brokerage's expectations, a few notable positives were there, including improvement in viewership share to 17.7 per cent from 17 per cent in Q1 and sustained traction for Zee5.

"With a clear focus on market share gains, content launches should remain at elevated levels in H2. Zee is also targeting the release of 17-18 original shows, with the view of increasing the revenues from Zee5. Ad revenues are expected to rise in H2FY22 and reach pre-Covid-19 levels, but this is contingent on market share recovery across key channels," the brokerage firm said. It maintained 'buy' rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 415 against Rs 430 earlier.