Tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's much-awaited plan to inject four privately-owned publications into locally listed Next Media is still in the pipeline.
Company insiders said the plan - which involves the acquisition of one newspaper and three magazines - Apple Daily, Next Magazine, Sudden Weekly and Eat, Travel & PC Weekly - was reportedly set to be rejected by the stock exchange.
However, they said, the exchange was seeking further information about the plan Next submitted about two months ago.
'We haven't received any confirmation letters that the stock exchange has turned down our proposal. Rather, both parties are still pursuing it further,' one insider said.
'We just got 30 pages of questions from the stock exchange last week, which is not unusual. This is down from the peak of 100 pages.'
Next Media is also updating its profit and loss account by auditing results up to the end of December from September, in response to a stock exchange request.
Mass market newspaper Apple Daily and finance and gossip weekly Next Magazine were profitable, with net earnings estimated at HK$232 million and HK$48 million respectively for the year to March 31 last year.