New Delhi : Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) on Friday said its proposed acquisition of two media entities, 9X Media and INX Music, have been called off due to non-completion of certain material conditions.
Last year in October, the company had announced that it would acquire 100 per cent stake in 9X Media and INX Music in a Rs 160-crore cash deal.
As per the proposal, ZEEL was to acquire 91,453,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each of 9X Media for a consideration of Rs 155.20 crore. Besides, it was also to acquire 13,39,556 equity shares of Rs 10 each of INX Music constituting 29.15 per cent stake for Rs 4.80 crore. The remaining 70.85 per cent in INX Music stake is owned by 9X Media and therefore consequent to the transaction, INX will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of ZEEL, the company had said then.
“In this regard, we wish to inform you that the said acquisition deal has been terminated/ called-off by the Company inter alia due to non-completion of certain material conditions precedent,” ZEEL said in a regulatory filing.
It, however, did not elaborate what were the precedent material conditions.
Zee operates 33 channels while 9X Media runs five music channels—9XM, 9X Jalwa and 9X Bajao in Hindi, 9X Jhakkas in Marathi and 9XO in English—and INX broadcasts Punjabi channel 9X Tashan. 9X also runs Bollywood news portal SpotBoyE.
9X and INX Music posted consolidated loss Rs 5.1 crore in the year through March 2017 on total revenue of Rs 158.6 crore. This compares with a profit of Rs 11.7 crore on revenue of Rs 176.2 crore the year before.
The scrapping of the transaction means the tumultuous journey of the company that originally owned 9X and INX Music continues.
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