Next Media looks to future after sale
The regulators in Taiwan will still have to review the sale although the buyers' consortium has made changes to comply with requirements
While regulators in Taiwan are set to review the sale of Next Media's print and television business on the island to a group of tycoons, publishing mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is just glad the deal allows his company to move on.
"We're looking forward to the future," said Lai's assistant, Mark Simon. "We think they (the Taiwanese tycoons) are good buyers and we wish them luck."
Negotiations for the NT$17.5 billion (HK$4.7 billion) cash transaction were concluded at nearly midnight on Tuesday at a hotel in Macau, with Next Media chief executive Cassian Chung Ka-sing and the representatives of the buying consortium.
Next Media, in which Lai serves as chairman and controlling shareholder, has agreed to sell its print and TV business to a consortium that includes Formosa Plastics Group chairman Wang Wen-yuan, entrepreneur Jeffrey Koo Jnr, Want Want China Broadband chairman Tsai Shao-tsung, Yung Len Life Service chairman Lee Shih-tsung, and Taiwan Fire & Marine Insurance chairman Lee Tai-hung.
The famously anti-Beijing Lai, who expanded his media empire to Taiwan in 2001, decided to pull up stakes in the island after failing to obtain a licence for cable TV. Losses have also mounted at Next Media's TV and multimedia units in Taiwan.
The initial agreement between Next Media and the buying group, which was led by Koo, set the deal's completion on November 17. But the two sides rescheduled that to November 27, which allowed the buyers to add investors and comply with Taiwan's regulatory requirements.