With his back to the wall and sensing some drastic action from lenders, media baron Subhash Chandra on Friday made an emotional appeal to bankers to desist from reacting in an “anarchical manner” and be “patient” with him till his group completes the stake sale in crown jewel Zee Entertainment to help pay back dues.

“I still believe, strongly feel, and would like to urge the lenders, not to react in an anarchical manner and to maintain patience till the process of ZEE Entertainment’s stake sale is completed. Post the sale process, we will be positively able to repay the entire dues, but if the lenders react in a panic, it will only hurt them and us,” Chandra, Chairman of ZEE and Essel Group, said in an open letter, a copy of which was made available to the media.

Stocks battered

The letter came after Zee stocks got hammered on the stock exchanges. Zee Entertainment shares were down 26 per cent at ₹319 a piece at close on Friday on the BSE.

“I would again like to reiterate that I have no intention whatsoever to keep a single rupee till all the dues to the lenders are paid,” he said.

Apologising to his financial supporters, Chandra said: “For the first time in my career of 52 years, I am compelled to apologise to our bankers, NBFCs and mutual funds, since I believe that I have not lived up to to their expectations despite the best of my intentions.”

Bets gone wrong

Pointing out the bets he took that went wrong, Chandra said that Essel Infra, like most infrastructure companies, made some incorrect bids. “In usual cases, infra companies have raised their hands and left their lenders with non-performing assets. But in our case, my obsession of not walking away from the situation made me to bleed ₹4,000-5000 crore. Despite the loss-making projects, we continued to pay the interest and the principle by borrowing funds against our shareholdings in listed companies, he wrote.

“My recommendation to my brother Jawahar Goel to buy D2H from Videocon was one more key error, which costed me and Jawahar a fortune. When our family business separation was implemented, as the eldest member of the family, I had taken the entire burden of the debts. Post which, most of my bets on the new businesses have not worked, which led to the increased debt due to the added interest levels.

“The situation at hand became further unmanageable after the IL&FS issue came to public light. Till then, we were managing our borrowings efficiently. The IL&FS meltdown stopped the rollovers, diminishing our ability to service our borrowings.”

The Group, Chandra said, took steps to retrieve the situation and till December, continued to pay the interest and principle, to all lenders.

“I have also given my best to expedite the stake sale of ZEE Entertainment. In fact, I have just returned from London after a series of positive meetings with potential suitors.

I am extremely certain that there is no promoter in India Inc. who has dared to sell the jewel of his crown to pay off the liabilities. While the process is still ongoing, there are some forces that are not willing to see us succeed”, he stated.

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