While its mega-merger with Zee Entertainment remains terminated, Sony’s Indian arm remains optimistic about its future in India as a media entity, recognising its growth potential. Hinting at their future plans, Sony said that they continue to explore more opportunities in India after the merger with ZEEL didn’t pan out.
Sony president, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki said the company is seeking various options, including finding another opportunity to replace the plan and organic growth opportunities in India, which has shown great potential in the sector.
Totoki said Sony would continue to invest in India as it is a very appealing market. “India on a long term basis has a great growth potential. It’s a very appealing market. Therefore, we will try to seek various opportunities and if we can find another opportunity that would replace this type of plan,” he said, when asked about the company’s future plans after the terminated merger.
On the investment which Sony had committed as part of the deal, he said, “Well, that investment is not going to change a capital allocation or it will not change our behaviour in our investment. So at the moment, we do not have any concrete plans.”
The group will also continue to pursue organic growth as per its strategy in India, where it operates through Culver Max Entertainment (earlier known as Sony Pictures Network India), he said in the investors call.
According to the terms of the merger between Sony and ZEEL, the Japanese media giant was supposed to invest $1.5 billion in the merged entity. If merged, Sony and ZEEL would have created the largest media entity in India, valued at over $10 billion.
Sony-ZEEL merger terminated
Last month, Sony sent a notice to Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL), terminating the proposed merger between the firm and Sony’s two Indian entities – Culver Max Entertainment and Bangla Entertainment Private Limited (BEPL).
In the termination notice, Sony alleged that Zee had not honoured the merger conditions and initiated an arbitration proceedings before SIAC claiming USD 90 million (around ₹748.5 crore) as a termination fee.
Zee rejected all the allegations put forward by Sony and filed a petition before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), seeking a direction to Sony Group to implement the merger scheme.
(With inputs from PTI)