Shaw to sell TVB
May 19, 2008
Sir Run Run Shaw, the centenarian founder and chairman of Hong Kong based Television Broadcasts, is in talks to sell his stake in the world's leading Chinese language broadcaster and has attracted interest from private equity groups including Bain Capital and Blackstone.
TVB is by far Hong Kong's dominant TV station, with a big presence in China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. It also has a sizeable distribution and syndication business in overseas markets, including the US and Canada. Almost 40 per cent of its revenue was derived outside Hong Kong last year.
The 40-year-old company is attractive to private equity investors because of its underleveraged balance sheet, according to Goldman Sachs analysts. They also said that TVB could squeeze more profits out of its operations in China.
Shaw Brothers, which has a 26 per cent stake in TVB, said this week that Shaw Holdings, its controlling shareholder that is wholly owned by Sir Run Run, was in discussions to offload its stake in TVB