Manish Chokhani, Ashok Kurien resign from Zee Entertainment board ahead of AGM.
Invesco Developing Markets Fund and OFI Global China Fund LLC, the largest shareholders of Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL), have called for an extra-ordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove Punit Goenka from the firm's board as director.Goenka, son of Essel Group founder and chairman Subhash Chandra, is managing director and chief executive officer of ZEEL.
Invesco Developing Markets Fund and OFI Global China Fund LLC together own a 17.88% stake in ZEEL.
The two institutional investors also called for the removal of two of ZEEL's independent directors, Ashok Kurien and Manish Chokhani.
The letter also proposed the appointment of six independent directors, including Surendra Singh Sirohi, Naina Krishna Murthy, Rohan Dhamija, Aruna Sharma, Srinivasa Rao Addepalli and Gaurav Mehta.
ZEEL requires approval from the Information & Broadcasting Ministry for the appointment of any new independent directors.
The Company is examining the said letter, its related attachments and will take necessary action as per applicable law, ZEEL said in a filing to the stock exchange.
In a separate announcement on 13 September, ZEEL informed that Chokhani and Kurien resigned as non-executive non-independent directors.
"The Company has today received letters from Mr. Manish Chokhani and Mr. Ashok Kurien resigning from the position of Non-Executive Non-Independent Directors of the Company with immediate effect," ZEEL said in a statement.
Chokhani has resigned due to "changed life circumstances and perspectives post covid", while the reason cited for Kurien was his "preoccupation." Both tenures ended as of 13 September.
ZEEL will hold the 39th annual general meeting of the equity shareholders on Tuesday, 14 September 2021.
As on 30 June 2021, promoters held 3.99% in ZEEL. Invesco Developing Markets Fund (formerly Invesco Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund) held 7.74% stake while OFI Global China Fund LLC held 10.14% stake.
ZEEL is a media and entertainment company engaged in providing broadcasting services. On a consolidated basis, ZEEL posted a net profit of Rs 213.8 crore in Q1 FY22, steeply higher than net profit of Rs 30.37 crore in Q1 FY21. Net sales increased 35% to Rs 1775 crore in Q1 FY22 from Rs 1312 crore posted in Q1 FY21.
Following the latest developments, shares of ZEEL surged 21.41% to trade at 226.80. The stock hit a high of Rs 232.15 and a low of Rs 205.45 so far.
On the BSE, 17.12 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 4.85 lakh shares in the past two weeks.
The stock has outperformed the market over the past one month, rising 24.88% compared with 5.40% rise in the Sensex.
The scrip has underperformed the market in past one year, rising 5.92% as against Sensex's 50.76% rise.
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