Jimmy Lai's Next Media rockets on sale of Taiwan assets
Jimmy Lai's cash deal lifts stock by 41 per cent after trying and failing to hold out on the island
The price of shares in Hong Kong-listed Next Media rocketed 41 per cent yesterday to their highest level in nearly four years, after media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying said he would sell his newspaper, magazine and television assets in Taiwan for NT$17.5 billion (HK$4.64 billion) in cash.
"The surge in the shares of Next Media is because Lai agreed to sell the Taiwan business, thus he won't need to pump more capital into [that] market," Lyncean Securities managing director Francis Lun Sheung-nim said.
The stock closed at HK$1.58, up 41 per cent, compared with a gain of 0.48 per cent by the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
"The 40 per cent increase is too much speculation," Lun said. "This is irrational."
He estimated that HK$1 was a reasonable price. "The price was even above HK$1.70 during the trading [yesterday], which is too high," he said, noting that the share price lingered below HK$1 for a long time.