Malaysian media tycoon Tiong Hiew King (張曉卿) is making a bid to merge his three Chinese-language publishing groups in Malaysia and Hong Kong to build one of the world's largest Chinese media conglomerates.
The merger will combine Tiong's Sin Chew Media Corp (星洲媒體) and Nanyang Press Holdings (南洋報業股份) in Malaysia with Hong Kong-listed Ming Pao Enterprise Corp (明報) via a share swap.
Tiong is the majority shareholder in Sin Chew and Ming Pao and is in the process of buying Nanyang.
"The merger is a strategic move to transform Sin Chew Media into an international media group to compete with global media corporations," Tiong said in a statement yesterday.
Sin Chew in the same statement said the enlarged entity would "leverage on its extensive global footprint to expand into the media market in China as well as globally."
The new group "will emerge as one of the largest Chinese language print media platforms," it told Malaysia's bourse late on Monday.
The merger will see the enlarged group operating through a publishing merger of Chinese-language newspapers and magazines in Malaysia, Hong Kong, the US, Canada and China, it said.
Under the deal -- which must be signed by April 30 -- Sin Chew and Nanyang will be de-listed from Malaysia's bourse and replaced with Ming Pao.
Sin Chew and Nanyang will become wholly-owned subsidiaries of Ming Pao.
Figures released by investment bank CIMB, which is advising Sin Chew on the deal, showed that the share swap deal is valued at 1.54 billion ringgit (US$439.6 million).
"Ming Pao Enterprise will ... become the first company to have a dual primary listing in both Malaysia and Hong Kong," Sin Chew said.
The company's executive director, Rita Chin, said yesterday that the exercise was targeted to be completed by February next year, with Sin Chew and Nanyang shareholders expected to vote on the merger in the fourth quarter of this year.
Hailing from Malaysia's eastern Sarawak state, Tiong made his name as a timber tycoon before venturing into the media business.
Forbes this year said his net worth was about US$1 billion, listing him as number 746 of 793 billionaires worldwide.
Sin Chew publishes Malaysia's largest circulated Chinese newspaper, the Sin Chew Daily, while Nanyang produces the country's oldest Chinese-language daily, the Nanyang Siang Pau.
Ming Pao Group's major publications include the Ming Pao Daily News, which is published in Hong Kong, Toronto, Vancouver, New York and San Francisco.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS