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Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong), owned by 102-year-old media mogul Sir Run Run Shaw, has agreed to sell its entire shareholding in Television Broadcasts (TVB) to an investor group led by local dealmaker Charles Chan Kwok-keung and Taiwanese entrepreneur Wang Cher.
The operator of Hong Kong's biggest free-to-air TV network said the deal was signed yesterday and would be completed on or before March 31.
In a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange last night, TVB said Shaw Brothers would sell its entire 26 per cent in the company. This represents 113,888,628 shares.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed and it was not clear last night exactly how much Chan, Wang and Providence Equity Partners - the other member of the investor group - offered for the Shaw Brothers shares. 
However, TVB's shares closed at HK$45.90 last night and that means the deal could be worth about HK$5.2 billion.
The deal is not a surprise as it was widely speculated that Shaw wanted to sell his TV empire.
'It is easy to understand the reason for Sir Shaw to sell his media empire. He is old  and it's not very pragmatic for him to continue taking care of business. The day of handing over was always going to come sooner or later,' said Wang Ran, chief executive of boutique investment bank China eCapital Corp.
'For him, he can keep this legendary media giant to himself, or he can cash it in and use the money to do things in which he is interested, charity and so on. When there is a proper pricing, he sells it.'
TVB last night said Chan, Wang and Providence chief executive Jonathan Nelson would be nominated to join the TVB board on completion of the deal.
Chan, the chairman of ITC Corp, is a well-known dealmaker who has dabbled in the media industry before. In 2000, he was behind a takeover of Sing Pao, one of Hong Kong's oldest news publications. Chan sold his shares in that company within two years. He is also known for his good relationship with Li Ka-shing.
Wang is the daughter of Taiwanese tycoon Wang Yung-ching, one of the island's richest tycoons with an estimated net worth of US$5.5 billion. She founded smartphone maker HTC Corp and chipmaker VIA Technologies.
Providence Equity Partners is a United States-based private equity firm with more than US$22 billion of capital under management.
The Shaw Foundation Hong Kong, which currently has 27,286,200 shares or a 6.23 per cent in the issued share capital of TVB, will dispose of a portion of its shareholding to certain independent third parties on or before the completion of Shaw Brothers' divestment in March.
Mona Fong Yat-wah, deputy chairwoman  and the wife of Shaw, currently holds 1,146,000 shares, or a 0.26 per cent stake, in TVB. 
The announcement ends months of speculation over who would seize control of TVB, which Shaw founded in 1967. Shaw gave up his executive duties in 2009 to become the non-executive chairman. He is the biggest shareholder in TVB with a 32.5 per cent stake, comprising shares held personally and the 26 per cent holding owned by Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong).
Last year, the reported front runners to buying the Shaw family's TVB stake included Henderson Land Development vice-chairman Peter Lee Ka-kit and Shanghai Media Group, the mainland's second-largest media company.
Besides dominating the Hong Kong market, TVB is a major Chinese television programming distributor worldwide. Its programmes mainly cover Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It also owns a pay-television channel in Taiwan, TVBS.



Shaw sells TVB stake in estimated HK$5.2b deal