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KMT denies purchaser of assets got the better of it

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday denied being misled by the buyer of its three media companies in last December's party asset sale, and said the party will receive payment after signing the deal protocol by the end of this month.

The KMT sold China Television Co (CTV), the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) and the Central Motion Pictures Corp (CMPC), the three media outlets owned by the party, to the China Times Group last December for NT$9.3 billion (US$280.68 million), including NT$5.3 billion in debt held by the three companies.

A news article published in the Chinese-language newspaper, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times sister newspaper) yesterday said that the group had continued to delay the payment since the deal was made, and even tried to return the CMPC to the KMT.

KMT Deputy Secretary-General Chang Che-chen (張哲琛) yesterday denied that the party and its chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) were "trapped" by the buyer, as the report claimed, and said that the contracts had not been altered.

"We already received a NT$400 million down payment, and there is nothing changed in the contract," he said yesterday during a press conference at KMT headquarters.

After the contract was made, Chang said, the party and the buyer will still need to sign a protocol as a legal procedure to finalize the deal. The protocol draft was finished a few days ago and the two parties are scheduled to sign it by the end of the month, he said.

"After signing the protocol, the group will pay the KMT NT$2 billion within the next six months," he added.
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