New | Former HTC chief Peter Chou leads management buyout at Digital Domain

Peter Chou, the co-founder and former chief executive at Taiwanese smartphone giant HTC, is leading a management buyout at Hong Kong-listed Digital Domain Holdings, which runs the world's biggest independent visual-effects company.

The buyout deal, which was announced through the Hong Kong stock exchange late on Monday, followed Chou's appointment as chairman of Digital Domain last Friday. He joined the company as one of its three executive directors on August 31.

Chou, Digital Domain chief executive Daniel Seah Ang, and chief operating officer Amit Chopra each negotiated with Zhou Jian, the company's biggest shareholder, to buy a combined 16 per cent of the issued share capital that he held at a price of 30 HK cents a share, for a total consideration of about HK$482 million.

The transaction is expected to be completed in a month's time, establishing Chou, Seah and Chopra as Digital Domain's single-largest shareholder group with a combined 17.1 per cent stake.

Seah told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday that he had personally recruited Chou to add more industry experience on the senior management team as Digital Domain builds up its virtual-reality content business and transforms into a full-fledged technology company.

"He is here to help in terms of strategy and technology. It takes years and years of experience to build up one's background in technology, and that is why I need Peter as a mentor," said Seah, who stepped down from his other role as chairman to make way for Chou.

The new chairman has more than 30 years of experience in the information technology sector, working more than 10 years as president and chief executive at HTC.