The long-running war of words between the stakeholders of troubled broadcaster ATV shows no signs of letting up, with Taiwanese snack food tycoon Tsai Eng-meng quick to counter statements by major shareholder Payson Cha Mou-sing. Just 24 hours after Cha spoke of his plans to bring in new investors, Tsai released a statement saying he reserved the right to take legal action against Cha. Cha said that since 2007, he and his family had injected HK$321 million into ATV, whereas Tsai had contributed HK$274 million. Cha said that while his side had invested much more money, Tsai's percentage of shares was higher. In his statement, Tsai said he had a meeting with Cha on January 2, and since then had remained silent over disputes between them. Tsai said that statements made by Cha during the latter's press conference on Wednesday were not entirely accurate, and that Cha planned to sell his shares only because he had made a profit from his investment. But Tsai, largely, did not go into details. Cha's family owns 51 per cent of the A shares of Antenna Investment, which have voting rights, while Tsai owns the rest. Cha's family also owns 10.75 per cent of ATV's shares through Panfair. The rest of the shares are owned by Chan Wing-kee, with Phoenix TV chairman Liu Changle and mainland conglomerate Citic Group. On Wednesday, Cha said he would meet his share-transfer obligations as agreed with Tsai within five years, but only if the Taiwanese tycoon could meet Hong Kong residency requirements. The city's Broadcasting Ordinance only allows a person with residency of no less than seven years to exercise control over a domestic free-to-air television broadcaster. But Tsai said in his statement: 'The actual agreement between Cha and Tsai is that Tsai has the right to ask Cha to transfer his shares from Panfair and Antenna to Tsai, or anyone nominated by Tsai and acknowledged by the Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority, any time within five years. 'Cha was well aware of the fact that neither Tsai nor his son is a permanent Hong Kong resident, and both parties understood the law's restrictions. 'Therefore, according to the contract, Tsai has the right to demand Cha to transfer shares to a suitable candidate nominated by Tsai, but not necessarily Tsai himself or his son.' Tsai added that he reserved the right to take legal action against all the claims and accusations Cha made during his press conference. Despite Cha saying that ATV only had 10 per cent of audience share compared to TVB, Tsai said he still believed in ATV, hoping it could improve its operations and emerge from its rival's shadow. On Wednesday, Cha said he had been negotiating with at least three parties interested in investing in ATV, He did not disclose identities, but did not deny that one of the potential investors could be Wang Zheng, 46, chairman of Shenzhen-listed Rongfeng Holding, a property developer. Wang is the son of the late Shu Tong, Shandong party chief in 1950s. A person familiar with ATV's operations said yesterday the deal with Wang had already been struck. No comments could be obtained from Cha's camp yesterday.
