Wong Ching ‘gambled with Hong Kong broadcaster ATV’s staff in bid to secure investors’

ATV's main investor and de facto boss Wong Ching "lost his gamble" when he tried to use the station's 700 employees as chips in his bizarre bid for licence renewal, his cousin, former ATV executive director James Shing Pan-yu, said yesterday.

Shing said Wong's strategy to attract new investors involved portraying the station as cash-strapped as he tried to stir interest in takeover bids by questionable methods such as not injecting fresh funds to pay wages.

"I would say this time he lost his gamble ... [He] did not pay wages, put the whole station on the gambling table ... This was very risky," Shing said in an appearance on Commercial Radio.

Shing said many potential investors - including from the mainland - had recently expressed interest in buying a stake.

"This may have given [Wong] the illusion that 'it would be done'," he said.

But Wong's actions this week took many by surprise. On March 26, he told mainland media group Caixin that ATV could close by the end of March. But the next day he backtracked, saying it was a misunderstanding.