Hong Kong-based Next Digital Ltd (壹傳媒), owned by jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英), is ceasing operations from today after the company’s assets were frozen as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
Next Digital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The firm is the publisher of Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy newspaper that closed last week after its newsroom was raided by 500 police officers investigating whether some articles breached the National Security Law.
Photo: Reuters
Beijing imposed the legislation in Hong Kong on June 30 last year. It defines and prohibits acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, with sentences of up to life in prison.
The Next Digital memo, shared separately by two employees, said that assets linked to the company remained frozen under the investigation.
Dated yesterday, the memo was addressed to all Hong Kong staff from the board.
“The group will cease operations,” it said. “Although the road ahead is difficult, continue to move forward.”
The Hong Kong Security Bureau, which directed the asset freeze, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lai, a staunch Beijing critic, was arrested last year on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces. He is serving a prison sentence for taking part in illegal assemblies during Hong Kong’s mass democracy protests in 2019.
Next Digital, which had a market capitalization of HK$765 million (US$98.5 million), said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday that it had accepted a proposal to divest Amazing Sino International Ltd, which operates the online edition of Taiwan’s Apple Daily.
It had earlier ceased printing its Taiwan edition, blaming declining advertising revenue and difficult business conditions in Hong Kong linked to politics.
Next Digital said in a statement on Tuesday that it has begun negotiations with “a potential purchaser” for Amazing Sino and its subsidiaries, which publish the digital version of Apple Daily in Taiwan.
“The parties have agreed to work toward signing definitive transaction agreement[s] on or before 30 July 2021 or such later date as may be mutually agreed,” the statement said.
Next Digital said the potential buyer is “a third party independent of” Next Digital, without sharing further details.
Additional reporting by CNA
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