Sun TV Sinks as Marans' Assets Attached in Aircel-Maxis Case

Sun TV shares slumped over 13 per cent on Monday and headed towards their worst one-day selloff in many months as investors reacted negatively to the attachment of some of the company's assets by the Enforcement Directorate last week. Sun TV underperformed the broader stock markets, which opened on Monday after a four-day break.

In all, assets worth Rs 740 crore were attached, some of which belonged to Sun TV. The attachment of assets pertains to the Aircel-Maxis deal of 2006, which is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation. (Read the full story)

According to the CBI, Dayanidhi Maran, as Union Telecom Minister, misused his office to engineer the sale of telecom Aircel to Malaysia's Maxis Group in 2006. A criminal case that accuses Mr Maran of corruption and conspiracy alleges that in exchange, Maxis paid "illegal gratification" worth more than Rs 700 crore, a part of which was allegedly invested in a media company that is part of the Sun Group, owned by Mr Maran's brother, Kalanithi.

A separate case of money-laundering has been filed against the Marans by the Enforcement Directorate which said on Wednesday that a fixed deposit worth Rs 100 crore in the name of Kalanithi Maran is among a series of bank accounts and properties that will be seized against nearly Rs 750 crore of "illegal gratification" that was received by the media baron's companies via Mauritius.

The CBI began investigating the Aircel-Maxis case in 2011 after allegations that Dayanidhi Maran, as Telecom Minister, refused to sanction key permits for Aircel owner C Sivasankaran; a concerted campaign then allegedly coerced the entrepreneur to sell his firm to Maxis, which is owned by Malaysia's second-richest man T Ananda Krishnan.

Sun TV CFO SL Narayanan told NDTV that the attachment of some of Sun TV assets has resulted in a negative sentiment. (Also read: Rules Broken in How My Assets Were Seized, Says Dayanidhi Maran)

"We have maintained that valuations at which Astro made investment into Sun Direct is reasonable because there is empirical data to prove that... Whatever money that came in Sun Direct has been utilized for acquisition of fixed assets," he added.

Sun TV shares closed 10 per cent lower at Rs 410.40 apiece, on NSE.