The name of Taiwanese billionaire Tsai Eng-meng may be unfamiliar to most in Hong Kong but he is widely known as the 'king of rice crackers' in Taiwan and on the mainland.
He is the chairman of the Taiwan-based Want Want Group and its Hong Kong-listed Want Want China Holdings, the biggest maker of rice crackers and flavoured drinks on the mainland and in Taiwan.
Last year, Forbes ranked him ninth on the list of Taiwan's richest, with net worth estimated at US$2.6 billion. Now sources say he has agreed to inject funds to shore up the finances of Asia Television, triggering changes in the broadcaster's shareholding structure.
Mr Tsai, 51, may not have the controlling say in ATV, but his investment is not a random one, either.
He first signalled his ambitions in the media business in November when he agreed to buy Taiwan's financially troubled media company the China Times Group, which publishes the influential Chinese-language newspapers China Times and Commercial Times and owns TV stations in Taiwan, for a reported price of NT$20.4 billion (HK$4.7 billion).
Mr Tsai clinched the deal after beating a rival bid by Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, whose Next Media publishes the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily and Next Magazine in Hong Kong and Taiwan.