Broadcaster ATV doomed ‘to shut down within next few days’, major investor says
'Hong Kong’s first TV station will walk into history, as will its role as part of Hongkongers’ lives,' mainland businessman Wong Ching says
Troubled broadcaster Asia Television could shut down within the next few days, its major investor said, after a “white knight” investor failed to come to its rescue.
The last potential saviour of the station rejected funding plans to save ATV on Saturday, major investor Wong Ching said.
“The 58-year-old ATV is very likely to close at the end of this month. Hong Kong’s first TV station will walk into history, as will its role as part of Hongkongers’ lives,” Wong told the website of mainland China magazine Caixin.
Wong claimed the station owed him HK$1.8 billion, which he offered to reduce to HK$900 million. But the bids offered by investors were far from meeting the amount, he said.
A “renowned family who once owned ATV” offered HK$200 million to cover his loans to the station, and to pay an unspecified amount to buy 90 per cent of all shares, he said.
He added that another investor endorsed by a mainland tycoon had offered HK$300 million, two-thirds to cover his loans and the remaining to buy all of the station’s shares.
Meanwhile, after consulting Wong Ching, ATV issued a statement on Thursday in which it denied that Wong had mentioned that ATV was about to come to the end. “Instead, he has been moved by ATV’s spirit in fighting [the hardship] and the public’s support,” the statement said.