The National Communications Commission (NCC) has asked China Television Co (CTV, 中視) to improve its financial situation and submit financial statements and information on its shareholders before it can continue a performance review of the network.
The 51-year-old company, which, with Taiwan Television (台視) and Chinese Television System (華視), is among the nation’s oldest broadcast television networks, was owned by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) until it became a publicly traded firm in 1999.
In 2005, Want Want China Times Group acquired it, along with the Chinese-language China Times and cable network CtiTV News (中天新聞).
NCC data show that CTV has a paid-in capital of NT$1.5 billion (US$49.83 million), but its accumulated financial losses are equal to more than half of that.
Its book value has fallen to NT$3 per share and it has been listed by the Taiwan Stock Exchange as a full-cash delivery stock.
CTV general manager Pearl Hu (胡雪珠) and other network representatives yesterday met with the commission to answer questions during a review of its performance over the past three years, NCC spokesperson Hsiao Chi-hung (蕭祈宏) said.
“Given the network’s financial predicament, the NCC commissioners wanted to know if the network has any plans to first reduce capital to cover its losses and later raise capital. They also asked to see the network’s shareholders’ list, particularly those owning more than 300,000 shares,” Hsiao said.
The NCC requires the information to continue the network’s triennial performance evaluation, Hsiao added.
As the network’s license is valid from 2016 to 2025, the commissioners were concerned that shareholders could lose their money if its financial situation fails to improve, which would in turn affect its operations, he said.
NCC Department of Broadcasting and Content specialist Chen Shu-ming (陳書銘) said that CTV’s largest shareholder, Shenwang Investment Co (神旺投資), had first reduced its capital in the network in 2016 to address CTV’s financial problems after it secured permission to renew its license.
However, when the network tried to raise capital in 2017, other large shareholders declined to invest, which forced Shenwang to buy more than 50 percent of its shares, Chen said.
As a shareholder in a television network cannot own more than half of its shares, Shenwang was asked to reduce its holdings to about 49 percent.
In response, Hu said that CTV does not have any plan to raise capital this year, adding that it might be able to next year or in 2022.
The network has not turned a profit since 2013, and last year, it accumulated NT$3.25 billion in liabilities with losses per share of NT$0.94, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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