Mumbai: Zee has settled its claims with Standard Chartered Bank - this case not in NCLT, however it could have been a roadblock for the merger with Sony. Merger hearing was held at NCLT today and has been moved to 13 April for the next hearing

Indus Ind Bank and IPRS which were in NCLT and could have been a roadblock for the merger approval have been settled over the last few weeks, and now Standard Chartered Bank too. IDBI bank is the only one pending now at NCLT, which has to be settled or contested to get the merger approval with Sony; the amount pending with IDBI Bank as per latters claim is Rs 150cr. Settlement on above cases is a good news for expedition in the merger process and have a positive impact on stock valuations

Zee has moved up 25 per cent over the last one month and is still trading at inexpensive valuations of 9x (Ex OTT losses) - 13x (including OTT losses), factoring the merger going ahead and cost synergies playing out (in the range of Rs five - six bn)

We have assigned a target PER multiple of 17x for the core broadcasting business and after factoring Zee’s 47 per cent stake, business synergies and cash infusion (Rs 110bn) - we have a BUY rating on the stock with a TP of Rs 390 ; could see some downside (10-12 per cent on earnings) basis earnings downgrade due to the recent ad environment which has been muted due to new age cos cutting ad spends and other verticals reducing ad spends due to inflationary pressures," said Elara Capital senior VP research analyst (media, consumer discretionary & internet) Karan Taurani