Sale of Shaw's TVB stake cleared
The HK$6.26 billion acquisition of media mogul Run Run Shaw's stake in Television Broadcasts by an investor group was completed yesterday.
In a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, TVB said it had appointed three new directors to represent the investor group after obtaining the Broadcasting Authority's approval for the change in shareholding.
Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong), which is owned by Shaw, had sold its entire 26 per cent stake in TVB, the city's largest free-to-air television broadcaster, to ITC Corp chairman Charles Chan Kwok-keung, Taiwanese information-technology entrepreneur Cher Wang Hsiueh-hong and Providence Equity Partners, a United States-based private equity company that manages US$22 billion in capital and investments worldwide.
Chan, Wang and Jonathan Nelson, the chief executive of Providence, were named as non-executive directors of TVB effective today.
According to TVB, the relevant experience and background of the new investors would not only help the company, but benefit 'the well-being of the media industry in Hong Kong as a whole'.
TVB managing director Mona Fong Yat-wah, who is Shaw's wife, retains a 0.26 per cent shareholding in the company.
Shaw Foundation Hong Kong has donated 2.59 per cent of what had been its 6.23 per cent stake in TVB to various undisclosed educational and charitable institutions in Hong Kong. TVB said it had applied to the Broadcasting Authority for approval of the change in shareholding arising from that donation.
Once that final approval is secured, the investor group, the Shaw Foundation and Fong will have a total holding of about 130.98 million shares, or 29.9 per cent, of TVB's issued share capital.
Shares of TVB rose 1.33 per cent to close at HK$45.70 yesterday.
