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Government plans public offer of TTV stake

A stake of 54,609,000 shares -- or 19.46 percent -- of government-owned Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) will be sold to the public at a price of NT$12 (US$0.36) per share between May 22 and June 1, the government has announced.

"We are continuing our effort to withdraw from the media industry completely. We hereby urge the public to help by purchasing these TTV shares," said Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶), Cabinet spokeswoman.

Vice Minister of Finance Liu Teng-cheng (劉燈城) said that the entire process of selling government shares to the public is expected to be completed by Sept. 6. Liu said that although the current price is NT$8.09, TTV's future is promising.

"The Unique Group (非凡國際) won the [previous] bid with a price of NT$24.1. The group already owns a TV station, and I don't think they would have offered such a price for no reason," Liu said.

The group won its bid on April 11. It owns 25.77 percent of TTV's shares, and is now the largest shareholder in the company.

To purchase TTV shares, investors must be a Taiwanese citizen, and each investor will be allowed to apply for a maximum of 3,000 shares. The price for the public (NT$12 per share) was set by a committee that represents the government, following consultations with a financial advisory company and Capital Securities Corp (群益證券).

Chinese-language media reports say that TTV posted a pre-tax loss of NT$350 million last year.

"Information related to the offer can be found on the Internet and at 0800-097-988," Chen said.
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