Newi-Cable shareholders accept white knight, vote for rights issue to raise funds, continue operations

Operations at Hong Kong’s Cable TV will continue when its licence is renewed on June 1, after minority shareholders voted to approve a rescue plan led by the chairman of New World Development and his family to raise cash for the city’s financially distressed cable television network.

The company’s licence, which is due to expire on Wednesday, will be renewed after i-Cable Communications signed the renewal agreement with the government, said the company’s chairman Stephen Ng Tin-hoi.

“Today, i-Cable will sign the agreement so that on June 1 normal business operation will contiue in terms of programming, sales and advertising,” Ng said after a shareholders meeting in the city.

The successful vote closes a tumultuous chapter in the history of the subscription-based pay television network, which was launched in 1993.

Its majority owner Wharf Holdings - owning 73.8 per cent of i-Cable - decided to throw in the towel after nine years of losses, saying in March it would stop investing more money into the cable television business.
That left i-Cable struggling to operate under a cloud of uncertainty, with its operating licence due to expire on May 31. Last year’s net loss was HK$313 million, deteriorating from the HK$233 million loss in 2015.

New World’s chairman Henry Cheng Kar-shun and David Chiu Tat-cheong emerged as the main backers of Forever Top, the white knight consortium to the rescue, which will become the majority shareholder in i-Cable after the shares sale in which Wharf will not participate.