Essel Group is in the process of paying the second tranche of the debt later this month. “As the payments are made, JC Flowers will start releasing assets, which include Dish TV, Zee Learn and some real estate assets,” one of the persons said on the condition of anonymity.
A second source said there has been a lot of positive movement in the last month between the two parties. “The first tranche of ₹300 crore was paid a few months ago. The second tranche could be paid in the coming days. The eventual goal is to clear the entire outstanding amount by June,” the executive said.
Chandra, who had to part with a large part of his stake in Zee Entertainment to pare debt, is in talks with interested parties to offload real estate properties and infrastructure assets to clear JC Flowers ARC’s debt, said the second person quoted above.
Essel Group and JC Flowers ARC declined to comment.
In August 2023, Zee Learn disclosed that the company had reached a settlement agreement with JC Flowers to settle loans taken by certain trusts and entities.An Essel Group executive had earlier told ET that the group is in talks with corporate houses, real estate developers and leading private equity players for the sale of marquee land properties and a few unlisted infrastructure assets to generate ₹1,500 crore that Chandra is supposed to pay American PE firm JC Flowers to settle his debt obligations and take back control of assets including Dish TV.Essel Group originally owed ₹6,500 crore to Yes Bank, which was part of the ₹48,000 crore of stressed loans that were transferred to JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction in December 2022.
