Paradise Papers :Zee Media,Subash Chandra,ESSel Group exposed

New Delhi Nov 7: The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has once brought out paradise papers - the documents to shun the light on offshore entities.

The papers documents have exposed the links of Indian media houses establishing offshore entities.

The documents show that "Essel Group, promoted by Subhash Chandra, raised funds to repay debt and finance Veria Lifestyles, a venture he owns outside the Zee umbrella, by pledging promoter shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited."

The documents also revealed that a $62-million loan was taken from Credit Suisse to finance existing offshore promoter debt” in 2013. This loan was given to SMTP Ltd (Mauritius) which, in turn, provided a convertible loan to Essel Holdings Limited (Mauritius), a company indirectly wholly owned and controlled by Chandra.



The loan, Appleby records state, was indirectly backed by 46 million fully paid up equity shares of Zee held by Essel Holdings Limited (EHL), making prepayment necessary “upon fall in stock price of Zee by more than 40% since inception”. This refers to the shares that Essel Holdings Limited, as one of the promoters, continues to hold in ZEEL since 2011.

Subash Chandra/Zee media Reply

Dr. Chandra is not an executive director nor holds any post in ZEE except for being anon executive Chairman. We would confirm that the companies (Delgrada and EHL) are Essel Group companies. We also confirm that all activities in these companies satisfy/comply with all
regulatory aspects in their respective jurisdictions including India.