In the end it went through 21 days later than initially announced but the pieces appear to be falling in place for a strategic investor to come on board. Subhash Chandra's Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL), at its board meeting today, cleared a corporate restructuring proposal whereby 11 of its subsidiaries would either be merged with ZTL or wound up.

After this exercise is completed (expected to take six to eight months) there will remain only 12 companies under the ZTL umbrella. An official statement says the revised corporate structure will result in better utilisation of resources besides being simple and efficient from the point of view of compliance of tax laws, accounting and legal compliances.

The move by Zee Telefilms to further rationalise its large number of subsidiaries follows divestment of its stake last year in three subsidiaries  Buddha Films LTD, Zee Sports LTD and Zee Publishing Ltd.

ZTL currently has eight wholly-owned subsidiaries in India including Patco, EL-Zee Television LTD, Siti cable, ZIML, e-Connect India, ZILS besides two regional channel companies in Dakshin Media LTD (Tamil) and Kaveri Entertainment LTD (Kannada).

Its overseas subsidiaries include Zee Multimedia Worldwide LTD British Virgin Islands (ZMWLBVI) which is the holding company of ZMWL Mauritius and others. ZTL holds 50 per cent stake each in Winterhealth Company LTD which is the holding company for Asia Today Ltd.

Other ZTL subsidiaries functioning abroad include Expand Fast Holding BVI (which is the broadcasting company for Zee Music, Alpha and English channels) and Zee Multimedia Worldwide, Mauritius.

Companies proposed to be wound up: 
1. E-Connect India Ltd 
2. Programme Asia Trading Company Ltd 
3. Elzee Television Ltd 
4. Kaveri Entertainment Ltd 
5. Dakshin Media Ltd 
6. Winterhealth Company Ltd, Mauritius 
7. Hokushan Trading Ltd, Hong Kong 
8. Expand Fast Holdings Ltd, BVI 
9. Zee Multimedia Worldwide Ltd, BVI 
10. Asia TV, USA 
11. Zee TV SA (Proprietary) Ltd South Africa