Update | ATV’s Chinese investor injects HK$10 million to keep troubled Hong Kong broadcaster going ... for now
But station’s eventual fate remains unknown after main creditor Wong Ching rejects tech company China Trends’ HK$500 million lifeline
Asia Television’s investor has provided immediate funding, as agreed, to stop a court-appointed provisional liquidator from pulling the plug on the troubled station.
Deloitte, ATV’s provisional liquidator, issued a statement on Monday night saying China Culture Media, which is controlled by mainland businessman Si Rongbin, had provided funding in line with a court-endorsed agreement reached on March 4 for the approximate amount of HK$8 million to ATV, together with a cashier’s order for HK$2 million.
Deloitte is acting on behalf of ATV’s former boss Wong Ching, who sought to have the station wound up to recoup his loss. The accounting firm did not specify in its statement whether the latest injection of money would be sufficient for the broadcaster’s operation until April 1, when its TV licence expires.
READ MORE: ‘ATV could be Asia’s Netflix’ – investor’s plan to save Hong Kong’s dying TV station
ATV’s fate remains unknown after the latest attempt to save the troubled broadcaster was rejected.
A bid to turn the cash-strapped station into the city’s answer to US streaming giant Netflix fell apart as the local broadcaster’s largest creditor cast it aside.
In an announcement released on Monday morning, listed technology company China Trends said its debt restructuring proposals for ATV were turned down by Deloitte.
Deloitte was said to have come to the decision after consulting Wong and considering other factors, according to China Trends’ announcement.
“We are going to keep an eye on ATV even after the petition hearing to be held on April 13.”
His company raised eyebrows last week when it said it wanted to extend a lifeline to reinvigorate ATV and develop its online television business.
But China Trends, with a market capitalisation of about HK$1.3 billion, had not stated whether it would raise money from the market to provide the loans worth HK$500 million, nearly 40 per cent of its total market value, for ATV.
READ MORE: ATV to air Miss Asia Pageant one last time as it focuses on internet platform to stay afloat
In its latest regulatory filing, the firm, as one of ATV’s creditors, said it would continue to pursue its claims against the station for the repayment of debt, while still considering the possibility of raising new restructuring proposals.
The tech boss suggested other private companies might have offered proposals that were more appealing in Wong’s eyes.
“But who knows if those who are painting beautiful pictures right now will become another Si Rongbin?” Xiang asked.
ATV’s mainland investor Si was known to have broken his promises to inject funding since his takeover last year after initially boasting he had HK$10 billion in the pipeline for ATV.
READ MORE: ATV’s collapse exposes Hong Kong-China cultural divide of the type that breeds localism
Xiang said Monday’s rejected bid was “not beyond our expectation”.
“But it does not mean that we will give up,” he added.
The 51-year-old businessman earlier told the Post he aspired to turn the city’s oldest television station into another Netflix – the global provider of streaming movies and TV series – after offering HK$500 million in loans for ATV.
Meanwhile, two former ATV staff applied for legal aid in the first step they took to bring their cases to court to recover outstanding wages and have the broadcaster wound up.
Wingo Ng, who worked at the station as a producer over a decade, said the company’s uncertain future compelled the personnel to act.
“We could do nothing but answer the Labour Department’s call to resort to legal means and have it liquidated,” he said.
Ng was among more than 200 staff members who received Deloitte’s dismissal letters and left without getting paid two months of salary.
