The ATV-Ricky Wong deal that never was

ATV's de facto boss Wong Ching has taken the station on a turbulent ride over the past week as he sought a new investor, but his sometimes-controversial tactics proved futile in the end, with the Executive Council rejecting the station's application to renew its free-to-air licence.

Wong and his relative Wong Ben-koon, who holds the 52.4 per cent controlling stake on paper, were looking for investors to take over the troubled operation. Interested parties were invited to submit their proposals to accounting firm Deloitte by the end of January, but Wong Ching, who was said to be looking for HK$700 million, was not happy with any of the prices offered.

The confusion started last Thursday, when mainland media group Caixin quoted Wong Ching as saying the station would close at the end of March as bids from potential investors were too low. ATV rebutted the interview that same day, saying the station was operating as normal and it would not close. The next day, Wong himself denied there was a March deadline.

But a bigger bomb dropped on Tuesday. ATV's 6pm Chinese-language newscast announced that Wong Ching had agreed to sell his stake to HKTV boss Ricky Wong Wai-kay. The story was backed by two statements issued by ATV that night.

Yesterday morning, however, HKTV said no such deal had been struck.

It was followed by an announcement by Derek Lai, managing partner for Deloitte China's southern region in charge of the ATV sale. He confirmed at 11am that Wong Ching and an unnamed investor had signed a "heads of terms" - a document setting out the agreed principles during negotiations for a commercial transaction. It set out prices and conditions of the deal, to be followed by a sales and purchase agreement a month later.