Bitter Battle: ZEE CEO Punit Goenka Questions Invesco’s Earlier Silence On RIL Deal.

By: FE Bureau |

October 15, 2021 4:30 AM

He said that even though he had a lot of points to put across, he believed there was a time and place for it. Explaining his silence on the matter, Goenka said it was “better to break it at the right time, so that truth comes to the fore”.

Bitter battle: ZEE CEO Punit Goenka questions Invesco’s earlier silence on RIL deal.

Invesco had sought ouster of Punit Goenka and two non-executive directors, alleging breach of corporate governance norms. It has also sought induction of six of its nominees on Zee’s board.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Zee) managing director and chief executive officer Punit Goenka on Thursday issued a statement that questioned Invesco Developing Markets Fund’s earlier silence on the proposed merger with Reliance Industries (RIL) in February this year. In what he hoped would be his “first and last communication” on the matter, Goenka, on a personal note, questioned Invesco for not making its plans public earlier.

He went a step further and wondered why the rules of good corporate governance didn’t apply to institutional investors. However, he did not elaborate on what corporate governance standards rules did Invesco not abide by. He said in his note, “Does good corporate governance only apply to corporates and not their institutional investors?”

Goenka reiterated his earlier stance that the merger (as proposed by Invesco) was opposed as the valuation was not in favour of shareholders.