Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Trilegal get CCI approval on Sony-Zee merger (with conditions)

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has on Tuesday approved the Sony-Zee merger based on several conditions. CCI has imposed limits to prevent Zee Sony from abusing its dominating market position. 

Post this merger, Sony Pictures Networks India will own a majority stake of almost 51 percent stake in the newly merged entity - which will be publicly listed in India.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas advised Sony Pictures Networks India and Bangla Entertainment to get the CCI approval.

The Competition Team was led by Aparna Mehra, Partner and Rohan Arora, Partner, together with Krithika Ramesh, Senior Associate, Ritika Sood, Senior Associate, Karan Arora, Associate, Ishaan Chakrabarti, Associate and Sai Divkanwar Singh, Associate. The team was also supported by Pranav Satyam, Special Advisor.

The transaction team was led by Gunjan Shah, Partner and Karun Prakash, Partner.

Trilegal advised ZEE on the competition law aspect and the team was led by Partner and Head of Competition Law practice Nisha Kaur Uberoi and Gautam Chawla, Partner; assisted by Radhika Seth, Counsel; Ankush Walia and Swati Sharma, Senior Associates; and Akrathi Shetty, Ishan Arora, Vrinda Nagpal, Madhav Kapoor, Prerana De, Vasudha Verma, Akanshha Agarwal, and Devika Dhawan, Associates.

The transaction team was led by Nishant Parikh, Harsh Maggon and Ankit Kejriwal.

The CCI had issued a show-cause notice with their prima facie competition concerns and sought an explanation as to why a detailed investigation in Phase II should not be undertaken.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas instructed Senior Advocate Amit Sibal while Trilegal had instructed Senior Advocate Ramji Srinivasan for the hearing before the CCI on the response to the show-cause notice.