mumbai the promoters of zee entertainment zeel on wednesday hinted that they could be open to a bigger share sale just a day after unveiling plans to divest up to half of their holding in indias satellite broadcasting pioneerthe statement along with the appointment of liontree led by prolific media and telecom dealmaker aryeh bourkoff and goldman sachs as advisors appeared to convince market mavens that the chandra family is eyeing a large deal with us cable and media behemoths like charter communications and comcast toi reported on wednesday that the subhash chandra familywhich owns nearly 42 though 59 of it is pledged to creditorscould script possibly the biggest ma deal in indian media valuing zeel anywhere between 810 billion or more than rs 55000 crore its md ceo punit goenka said the promoters could consider a bigger deal if an attractive offer was made as part of the ongoing share sale planthe toi report also quoted investment bankers saying the promoters might be persuaded to sell its entire stake if the price of right if you want a global player or even reliance theyll want control if theyre going to pay a strategic premium said one of themzee shares had a choppy day before closing with a 1 loss at rs 434 the stock opened lower and quickly lost over 4 to its intraday low at rs 420 followed by a quick recovery to an intraday high at rs 470 and then lost steam through the session to close lower the zee leadership while talking to analysts also said that the promoters wouldnt have objections if the incoming strategic partner wanted to increase stake through an open offer under current sebi rules the regulation stipulates that if a buyer acquires more than 25 stake or even takes management control with a smaller stake purchase it would have to make an open offer to buy an additional 26 stake from all the remaining shareholders some analysts said zee naming liontree along with goldman sachs as an advisor on the transaction showed the promoters were keen on a large global partner liontrees ceo bourkoff has advised on deals worth more than 300 billion in the fastconsolidating media telecom and entertainment sectorsincluding billionaire john malone of charter communicationswhich owns timewarnercomcast and disney on industrychanging mas in recent yearstoi had also named reliance industries alibaba and google among the potential list of suitors for the zee stake comcast which many see as a strong contender has been active on megamergers but has in the process soaked in almost 100 billion in debt to spur its acquisitionled growthjp morgan in a client note said the induction of a global partner would address investor concerns of zees ability to be well positioned in the changing media landscape almost every analyst is sure that the incoming strategic partner would ask for significant control over zee and does not rule out the possibility of an open offer abneesh roy at edelweiss securities said that though the