No ulterior motives for Jimmy Lai’s HK$500 million loan to media firm Next Digital when it was unprofitable, witness tells Hong Kong court

Royston Chow, former Next Digital chief financial officer, says it was not ‘very common’ for shareholder to lend substantial amount of money to company such as Lai’s

Next Digital logged profit of more than HK$2.1 billion between 2001 and 2011 before recording continuous losses from 2015 to June 2021

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Jimmy Lai’s trial enters its 73rd day. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:12pm, 9 May 2024

A former financial chief at Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s flagship media company has told a Hong Kong court he saw no ulterior motives in the mogul loaning HK$500 million (US$64 million) to the firm when it was running at a loss before its winding up.

Royston Chow Tat-kuen, a former Next Digital chief financial officer and chief operating officer, said on Thursday it was not “very common” for a shareholder to lend a substantial amount of money to a company such as Lai’s.

“I’m not Mr Lai, so I don’t know why the company needed these shareholder loans even though it needed cash,” he told West Kowloon Court during the national security trial of his former boss.

The former top executive turned prosecution witness acknowledged it was “probably not the case” that the loans advanced by Lai in 2019 and 2020 were “anything sinister”.

Next Digital former financial chief Royston Chow has taken the stand as a prosecution witness. Photo: Sam Tsang

The 76-year-old Apple Daily founder is standing trial on two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications.

Prosecutors earlier portrayed Lai as the mastermind of an anti-China conspiracy linked to the now-defunct tabloid, where he had complete control over its editorial policies.