Sally Aw to retain Sing Tao role

Sing Tao tycoon Sally Aw Sian will retain a role in the firm even after a new shareholder joins the board, it emerged last night.

The deal - which will see the Cha family take a stake in one of the SAR's oldest newspapers - allowed Miss Aw to remain as Sing Tao Holdings chairwoman, director Yao Kang said.

'She will remain as chairwoman. The existing board will remain intact. That is part of the deal conditions,' he said. 'She will be very much running the business.' Miss Aw, 67, has been at the helm of the group since its founder, her father Aw Boon Haw, died in 1954.

She is executive chairman and group managing director. Miss Aw lives alone in the family mansion surrounded by the Tiger Balm Gardens.

She has no children and Mr Yao said she had been increasingly concerned at who would take over the group.

Mr Yao said Miss Aw believed offers rivalling the Cha family's would be unlikely in the present economic climate.

However, he said she was not selling shares to raise cash.