Siti owes a group of nine lenders a total of Rs 850 crore. Earlier this year IndusInd Bank and Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd (HDFC) had filed similar petitions to recover their dues. Axis Bank has the maximum exposure of Rs 200 crore among lenders. IDBI has a Rs 115 crore exposure.
Besides Siti, IDBI is also increasing pressure on group companies and has filed a petition to recover Rs 149 crore of dues from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) for a corporate guarantee woth Rs 550 crore issued by the company.
The bank has also initiated an auction to sell properties worth Rs 9 crore belonging to Siti Networks which will be conducted on December 29, a person familiar with the development said.
“Earlier IndusInd Bank has also filed a insolvency petition to invoke guarantees. All these actions by banks are an attempt to recover whatever can be from Zee,” said the person cited above.
Banks have also files intervention applications in the NCLT to be admitted as a party to the Zee-Sony merger which was announced a year ago. It is proposed that Zee will merge into Sony Pictures Network (SPN) to form a publicly listed company in India.
The company has already received approval from stock exchanges, the anti-monopoly regulator the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and also from its shareholders. Bankers are hoping that the NCLT will also decide on their dues when deciding on the merger. “We have filed our applications and will put forth our point when the merger comes before the court. If this dispute is not resolved it could delay the Zee-Sony merger,” said a banker.
