Kwok Hiu-ting (郭曉亭), daughter of the Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd (佳兆業集團) chairman, has agreed to buy a controlling stake in major Hong Kong media firm Sing Tao News Corp (星島新聞集團) for about HK$370 million (US$47.73 million).
Sing Tao chairman Charles Ho (何柱國) has agreed to sell 246.6 million shares at HK$1.5 each to Kwok, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday.
The price represents a 65 percent premium to Sing Tao’s last close of HK$0.91 on Thursday last week before a trading halt.
Sing Tao shares surged as much as 54 percent in resumed trading yesterday afternoon, their biggest intraday gain since July 2005. The stock closed the day at HK$1.02, up 12 percent.
Kwok, who is on the board of Kaisa Prosperity Holdings Ltd (佳兆業物業集團), is to hold a 28 percent stake as the largest single shareholder of Sing Tao. She is the daughter of Kwok Ying-shing (郭英成), chairman and cofounder of Shenzhen-based conglomerate Kaisa Group. Ho is to dispose of his remaining 3.37 percent stake in Sing Tao to other independent third parties, the statement said.
“I invest in the group mainly because Sing Tao News Corp has a strong brand influence, high-quality news coverage and a diversified media platform,” Kwok said in a separate statement, adding that she would invest more in mobile media.
The sale would make Sing Tao the latest Hong Kong media company to be taken over by people with links to mainland Chinese groups, at a time when Beijing is cracking down on the former British colony.
As part of the mainland’s tightening grip on the territory, media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英) — founder of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper — is facing trials on multiple charges.
Sing Tao is one of the oldest Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong with more than 80 years of history. It has editions for Chinese readers in Europe and North America. Besides traditional newspapers, Sing Tao also runs magazines and new media platforms.
The territory’s dominant television broadcaster, Television Broadcasts Ltd (電視廣播有限), better known as TVB, has an ownership structure that masks the influence of mainland media tycoon Li Ruigang (黎瑞剛).
Hong Kong’s largest English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post, was bought by Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) in a US$266 million deal that was completed in 2016.
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