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Television Broadcasts (TVB)
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Hong Kong television broadcaster TVB sets up task force to recover the bond default that pushed it into its first financial loss since 2008

  • TVB said it has set up a task force to explore all options to recover the US$106 million lost through two bond investments in SMI Holdings
  • The investments forced TVB to write off HK$500 million last year, pushing it into its first financial loss since at least 2008

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The head office of Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) in Tseung Kwan O on 2 July 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE
Louise Moon

Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), Hong Kong’s dominant free-to-air terrestrial television provider, said it has set up a task force to recover US$106 million lost through two bond investments in SMI Holdings.

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The investments in SMI’s secured and unsecured bonds ended in default, forcing TVB to make a HK$500 million write-off that pushed it into a 2018 loss of HK$199 million (US$25.3 million), its first financial loss since 2008, according to Bloomberg data. Without the impairment, TVB would have reported a 23.5 per cent earnings growth last year, from the HK$243.6 million net profit in 2017.

In hindsight, “something wrong must have occurred” with the bonds being in default, said TVB’s chief executive officer Mark Lee Po On, after the broadcaster’s annual shareholder’s meeting at its head office in Tseung Kwan O. “We could not see that in our due diligence process, so this is very unfortunate.”

TVB shares have plunged 40 per cent since August when SMI went into default, losing about HK$4.1 billion in value. The broadcaster laid off 150 staff last June, about 4 per cent of total payroll, in what TVB said was a shift of strategy in a competitive market. TVB, which began operations in 1967, was co-founded by the late movie mogul Sir Run Run Shaw.
TVB’s board of directors (left to right): vice-chairman Li Ruigang; Chairman Charles Chan Kwok-keung; Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Mark Lee Po-on; and Executive Director and General Manager Cheong Shin-keong on 29 June 2017. Photo: Felix Wong/SCMP
TVB’s board of directors (left to right): vice-chairman Li Ruigang; Chairman Charles Chan Kwok-keung; Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Mark Lee Po-on; and Executive Director and General Manager Cheong Shin-keong on 29 June 2017. Photo: Felix Wong/SCMP
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Hong Kong-based SMI is a producer and distributor of movies and television dramas, one of the two majority shareholders of cinema operator Chengdu Runyun Culture Broadcasting.

TVB bought US$23 million of SMI’s unsecured redeemable fixed coupon bonds in April 2018, followed by US$83 million of secured redeemable convertible bonds in May, both due in 2020 with one year extensions. Four months after the investments, trading of SMI shares was halted on September 3.

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