What’s next for Next Digital, with the closure of its flagship Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong?
- Next Digital has been suspended on Hong Kong stock exchange since June 17 following the arrest of top editors and other executives
- The publisher printed its last edition of Apple Daily on Thursday amid a cash crunch after police froze some of its funds
Minority shareholders of Next Digital will have an anxious wait ahead of them, as the media company’s flagship newspaper Apple Daily printed its final edition on Thursday amid the cash crunch from its financial assets being frozen under Hong Kong’s National Security Law (NSL).
The company is scheduled to hold a board meeting on June 28 to approve its financial accounts for the year that ended in March. The company is yet to appoint an auditor after CCTH CPA resigned. Company executives did not respond to queries whether the board meeting would still proceed.
“There are many retail investors trading Next Digital shares and they are likely to lose their investment as Apple Daily is its core business,” said Tom Chan Pak-lam, chairman of Hong Kong Institute of Securities Dealers. Next Digital does not have many other operations to keep it going, he added.
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Final edition of Hong Kong tabloid newspaper Apple Daily may be days away
The Hong Kong operation, including the print and digital revenue around Apple Daily, was the flagship of Next Digital, contributing to 82 per cent of the company’s revenue in the six months that ended on September 30 last year. Taiwan, where Next Digital published a daily newspaper and maintained a digital news portal, contributed 18 per cent of sales, according to the interim report.
With Next Digital losing such a substantial part of income from Apple Daily, delisting pressure is likely to mount, Chan said. Once delisted, “the shares will become worthless,” he added.