A TV Drama Spawned in India's Financial Shadows
Zee may attract interest from a string of global media and tech companies. The winner will have bankrupt lender IL&FS to thank.
Zee is the largest broadcaster in a market of 1.3 billion people.
Photographer: Sujit Jaiswal/AFPGetty Images
The opportunity to own the largest broadcaster in a consumer market of 1.3 billion people doesn’t arrive all that often; even more rarely does it come after a single-day 26 percent rout in the stock.
The special situation has arisen because of Indian infrastructure financier-operator IL&FS Group’s sudden $12.8 billion bankruptcy. Analysts who believed the tremors would reach other shadow-banking entities like Dewan Housing Finance Ltd. were half right. Yes, Dewan’s loan disbursements fell 95 percent from a year earlier in the December quarter amid pressure on the mortgage lender to deleverage. But the shock waves have now spilled beyond finance to reach the glamorous world of television content.