Eastern Broadcasting Co (東森電視), a cable TV network affiliated with the scandal-ridden Eastern Multimedia Group (東森媒體集團), said it would raise between NT$3 billion (US$91 million) and NT$3.5 billion through a private placement to strengthen its financial structure.
The broadcaster's shareholders yesterday approved a proposal to issue 300 million common shares at NT$10 to NT$15 per share through a private placement within a year.
Eastern Broadcasting will look for no more than 35 investors to buy the shares, the company said in a statement.
Investors that can assist the company's operations and strengthen its competitiveness would be considered first, it said.
Proceeds raised by the issue would be used to pay the company's outstanding loans of NT$2.6 billion, consolidate its financial structure and increase cash flow for operations, Eastern Broadcasting spokesman Chen Cheng-yi (
The fundraising will lower Eastern Broadcasting's debt-to-equity ratio from 153 percent at the end of last year to under 100 percent, he said.
The shares are non-transferable for three years. Eastern Broadcasting also plans to apply to trade its shares on the local bourse in 2010, Chen said.
Eastern Broadcasting runs 10 local channels, with more than 1 million subscribers, or 22 percent of the domestic cable TV market. The company also airs shows in the US, Europe and Asia.
Eastern Multimedia chairman Gary Wang (
The indictment has not affected the company's operations, Chen said.
Last year, the Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake in parent company
Eastern Multimedia and 12 cable television affiliates. Carlyle holds a 40
percent stake in Eastern Broadcasting, Chen said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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