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Country Garden chief seals $1.3b TVB stake

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-27 11:47

The chairman of China's Country Garden Holdings has agreed to pay $1.3 billion for 26 percent of Hong Kong's TVB, beating Blackstone and Carlyle to a coveted stake in Hong Kong's main broadcaster, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Tuesday.

Yeung Kwok-Keung, chairman of the Chinese property developer, was the only bidder to meet shareholder Run Run Shaw's criteria and will end up paying at least HK$10 billion ($1.28 billion) for control of the firm, the FT said.

Banks are now arranging funding for Yeung, bankers told Reuters Basis Point last week.

In May 2007, talk that Shaw may sell his slice of TVB ahead of his 100th birthday in October sent its shares to a record high. On Monday, shares in Shaw Brothers -- which owns the stake in TVB and is 75-percent owned by Run Run Shaw -- jumped 5.5 percent while TVB slid 1.4 percent.

Film and entertainment conglomerate Shaw Brothers said last week its controlling shareholder was in talks to sell his stake in Shaw Brothers, rather than TVB.

Run Run Shaw had agreed to sell to Yeung because he was the only buyer to meet requirements that the deal be worth no less than HK$10 billion and financed by cash, the FT cited people familiar with the deal as saying.

The news comes after a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Monday that Lee Shau-kee, chairman of Henderson Land, was providing HK$3 billion to finance Yeung's bid.

Shares in TVB, which has a market value of about $2.8 billion, have climbed 13 percent since mid-May, when Shaw Brothers said its controlling shareholder was in talks to sell his stake.

They have risen 5 percent this year, outperforming a 13 percent drop in the benchmark Hang Seng Index HSI.