In his attempt to quash rumours, Chandra clarified that his brother Jawahar Goel, who is the promoter and managing director of Dish TV, had helped Chandra by giving his own stake in Dish TV against loans availed by the Essel Group.
“Goel had extended support, in the form of a substantial portion of his equity (in Dish TV), as security for the credit facilities availed by Subhash Chandra Group,” Chandra said in a statement.
He added that the group is “confident and fully committed” to return the mentioned security cover back to Goel and his family.
Chandra reiterated that Goel, as the rightful owner of the equity stake in Dish TV, had only “stepped forward to offer support, and has no financial stress whatsoever in his personal capacity.”
In May last year, Yes Bank said it acquired 24.19% stake in Dish TV through invocation of pledged shares, after the Essel Group defaulted/breached terms of credit facilities sanctioned by Yes Bank.
Catalyst Trusteeship Limited, which acquired the stake on behalf of Yes Bank, is now the single largest shareholder in the company.
Post Yes Bank’s acquisition, a few other lenders also sold over 3.85 crore pledged shares of Dish TV in the following months, bringing down promoters’ shareholding in the company to under 13% in July last year.
As of March 31st, 2021, promoter shareholding in Dish TV has further reduced to 7.30%, of which 51.15% was pledged with the lenders.
Lately, rumours in the market suggested that Chandra was trying to get the pledged shares released from the lenders at a lower price and sell them to third party investors at higher price points.
“These speculations are absolutely baseless and incorrect, and the Group has no such intentions whatsoever,” the statement from Chandra’s office stated.
Dish TV scrip closed at Rs 9.39 per share, up 6.34%, on Thursday at the BSE.
