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Tag: Seshagiri Rao

  • Zee Telefilms company secretary Vikas Gupta quits

    Zee Telefilms company secretary Vikas Gupta quits

    MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms Ltd company secretary and ETC Music business head Vikas Gupta has resigned.

    He will be ending his seven-year tenure at Zee Telefilms when he leaves to join a new company in January. “I will continue to be in Zee Telefilms till the end of this month,” Gupta said.

    He, however, did not disclose the company he was joining. “I will be the company secretary and head legal and corporate affairs in the new place,” he added.

    Besides being the company secretary of Zee Telefilms, Gupta took up various additional responsibilities. He was made ETC Music business head last year while continuing as finance director of ETC Networks since Zee Telefilms acquired the company in 2002.

    A few months back, Gupta was also asked to supervise the financial functioning of Essel Group.

    One of Gupta’s important assignments was to reach a settlement with the promoters of Padmalaya companies, whom Zee had accused of misappropriation of shares. Zee had taken a 64 per cent stake in Padmalaya Enterprises Pvt Ltd (PEPL) which formed the holding company and held 50.3 per cent controlling stake in listed company Padmalaya Telefilms Ltd (PTL). 

    Zee later accused Padmalaya founder-promoter GA Seshagiri Rao, along with his relatives, of pledging PEPL’s shares in PTL to raise loans without the knowledge of the board. Zee exited from Padmalaya after being given land in Padmalaya Studios.

  • ZTL, Padmalaya reach accord; land part of deal

    ZTL, Padmalaya reach accord; land part of deal

    MUMBAI: Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) has reached a settlement with the promoters of Padmalaya companies, whom it had accused of misappropriation of shares.

    According to the agreement, ZTL will be given 21,000 sq metres of land in Padmalaya Studios located in Hyderabad. The valuation of the property is close to Rs 500 million, says a source in Zee Telefilms. Consequent to this, ZTL will completely exit from Padmalaya.

    Zee is likely to write off Rs 100 million as it had invested Rs 590 million in acquiring a majority stake in Padmalaya. ZTL had taken a 64 per cent stake in Padmalaya Enterprises Pvt LTD (PEPL). PEPL formed the holding company and held a 50.3 per cent controlling stake in Padmalaya Telefilms LTD (PTL), a listed company.

    Already 17,000 sq metres has been transferred to ZTL, says the source. Padmalaya Studios is a privately held company by the promoters of Padmalaya and has land in the prime locality of Hyderabad.

    “We are expecting the remaining 4,000 sq metres to be transferred within two months,” he adds. Zee is planning to sell the land to recover its investments in Padmalaya.

    As part of the settlement, ZTL will also get back Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA) which had been transferred to Padmalaya. ZICA is a training institute specialising in animation. “We wanted to protect the interests of the animation students,” the source says.

    ZTL had earlier accused Padmalaya founder-promoter GA Seshagiri Rao, along with his relatives, of pledging PEPL’s shares in PTL to raise loans without the knowledge of the board. As a result of the misappropriation, PEPL’s holding in PTL has dropped from 50.3 per cent to about 20 per cent. Zee’s indirect interest in PTL had, as a result, fallen from 33 per cent to around 13 per cent.