Zee Deal: Mutual Funds Not Out Of The Woods Yet, Says Ican Investments’ Anil Singhvi
Subhash Chandra-led Essel Group's Rs 4,224-crore deal to sell stake in the flagship broadcaster Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is “too little, too late in the day”, according to Ican Investments Advisors' Anil Singhvi.
“The fund managers expected the deal to get done at a much higher valuation,” the chairman at the advisory firm told BloombergQuint in an interview. “But now they will have to wait till September-end for another similar transaction (to get their remaining dues settled).”
Promoters of Zee Entertainment agreed to sell 11 percent stake in India's largest broadcaster to Invesco Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund at Rs 400 apiece. That's expected to help the promoters to pare debt. Oppenheimer Fund, according to exchange filings, owns 7.74 percent stake in Zee Entertainment as of June. Essel Group, which had offered shares of Zee Entertainment as collateral, had struck a standstill with lenders, particularly mutual funds, who agreed not to sell pledged shares till September-end.
Singhvi said the market regulator should impose a ban on mutual funds lending against the pledge of promoters' shares. “They (fund managers) should not be playing with fixed income investors' money as here period and interest is assured unlike equity risk.”
A fixed-income fund manager's role is to sell the underlying securities and pay to the interest-bearing fixed income investors. Unfortunately, mindset of most of the fixed-income fund managers is like an equity fund manager. You can take the risk in equity. Good faith reposed (by investors on fund managers) can't be abused like this.Anil Singhvi, Chairman, Ican Investments Advisors
Watch the full interview here:
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
