Yes Bank, India’s fourth largest private sector bank on Friday said that it has acquired 24.19% stake in Dish TV following invocation of shares pledged by the Direct-to-Home (DTH) operator. The lender in a filing to the stock exchanges said that it has invoked 44.53 crores of pledged shares due to debt default by Dish TV and other Essel group firms. Essel Business Excellence Services, Essel Corporate Resources and Living Entertainment Enterprises are some of the Essel group firms that are listed to have defaulted on the credit facilities sanctioned by Yes Bank. Additionally, Yes Bank has listed Last Mile Online, Pan India Network, Infravest, RPW Projects, Mumbai WTR and Pan India Infraprojects as the groups that have defaulted or breached the terms of credit facilities.
Dish TV Promoters Pledged 93% of Their Holdings
The promoters of Dish TV held a 54.56% stake in the company as of March 31, 2020 with the promoters pledging 93.46% of their total stake to the lenders.
“Shares have been acquired on invocation of pledge of shares and this is a one-time transaction,” Yes Bank said in the filing on Friday.
It has to be noted that Yes Bank had performed numerous similar transactions in the past year. In early 2020, the bank invoked pledged shares of Sical Logistics and Rosa Power, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Power. Similarly, the bank acquired pledged shares of Tulip Star Hotels, Cox and Kings in late 2019.
Further, Yes Bank highlighted that Dish TV had the ability to carry 655 channels and services including 40 audio channels and 70 HD channels and services. The consolidated total income of Dish TV was said to be Rs 6218 for FY19.
Dish TV Market Share at 31.23%
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data, Dish TV had a market share of 31.23% as of September 2019. In the same period, the segment leader Tata Sky had a market share of 31.61% in the country.
The DTH operator launched its services in 2003 and completed a merger with Videocon d2h in 2018. In early 2020, reports emerged that the talks on a possible merger between Dish TV and Airtel Digital TV merger were called off due to differences in the valuation. Airtel and Dish TV were said to be in negotiations for over eight months.
