As SEBI Finds An Accounting Gap Of $240 Million In ZEE Entertainment, ZEE Stock Tanks (Image: X.com/enterprises_zee)

A report on the Zee Entertainment claimed that Securities and Exchange Board Of India (SEBI), has found that, the company’s books has a $240 million, i.e., Rs 2,000 crore “accounting hole” in it. With the news of SEBI’s move, the stocks of the company has tanked by ten percent today in the morning. As per the report released by Bloomberg, the SEBI officials are in talks with the people at Zee, the founder Subhash Chandra and his son Punit Goenka, the Business Today reported.

On this matter, as the company is explaining their stance, the report quoted sources who were in the know but did not want to be identified, saying that, “the amount found missing is not final and may change after SEBI reviews the responses from the company executives,” moneycontrol reported.

SEBI’s uncovering of the accounting gap only adds to the company’s distress as the company is trying to reassure its investors after it has just fallen off a $ 10 billion merger plan with Sony. The merger plan with Sony was going on for the last two years, until it fell apart this January, caused after a stand-off on the matter of leadership of the venture. On the accounting hole in the books, a Zee spokesperson said that, “the reports and rumours pertaining to accounting issues in the company are incorrect and false. Pursuant to the SAT order, which granted relief to the current Key Managerial Personnel (KMP), the Company has been in the process of providing all the comments, information or explanation requested by SEBI, and has extended complete co-operation on all aspects.” SEBI is a regulatory body by the Government, which regulates the security market and also has a role to protect the interests of the investors who are investing in securities.

On the recent Zee-Sony merger news that it was being revived after falling apart in January, the Zee Entertainment Enterprises had made clarifications that there was no such revival, stating that it was “not involved in any negotiations” and that the news was “incorrect.” Since the latter half of 2023, the regulatory inquiries into the Zee leadership’s – the father and son’s financial improprieties and the conundrum of who would lead the new enterprise which ended up in a stalemate, had made Sony wary of the deal.