Buyers eye Next Media Taiwan

Next Media Ltd will agree to sell its Taiwan media assets to three buyers including Want Want China Holdings Ltd's chairman, said two people familiar with the plan.

An agreement may be signed on Saturday for the sale to Want Want's Tsai Eng-Meng, Chinatrust Charity Foundation's Chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr, and the family controlling Formosa Plastics Group, said company officials at Next Media and Formosa Plastics, who declined to be identified because talks are ongoing. Koo last month agreed to buy the assets for approximately $600.5 million.

The joining of Tsai and Formosa's Wang family in the buyout followed comments from the island's top banking regulator that Koo shouldn't own more than 20 percent of the media business because his family controls Taiwan's fourth-biggest listed financial company.