A bid by satellite broadcaster Sun Television Cybernetworks Holdings to buy a Taiwan TV station was last night mired in confusion.
Mainboard-listed Sun TV announced last month it had entered into an agreement to take a 60 per cent stake of Satellite Entertainment Communication for HK$45 million.
However, Satellite Entertainment yesterday said in a Taiwanese newspaper that its board had unanimously voted to reject the acquisition on March 14, because the island's broadcasting authority, the Government Information Office, considered Sun TV a company with a Chinese background.
However, the story took a new twist last night when a Sun TV spokeswoman said it had been informed by Satellite Entertainment that its board had not rejected the resolution on the acquisition. It said SEC would make a clarification on or before next Tuesday. She said the transaction would proceed.
Sun TV entered into a share-swap deal with mainland Internet portal sina.com in September last year. One of the key shareholders of sina.com is red chip Stone Electronic Technology.
If the Sun TV bid is rejected, it will be the second time a Hong Kong-listed broadcaster has been blocked from entering Taiwan.