New World Development’s Henry Cheng takes charge of pay-TV firm i-Cable after acquiring bigger stake in controlling shareholder Forever Top
- Cheng’s Celestial Pioneer increases its stake in Forever Top to 72 per cent
- Company does not disclose identity of sellers, values of the two deals made to increase stake
According to an exchange filing published on Thursday, Celestial Pioneer, an entity wholly owned by the Hong Kong billionaire, agreed to buy a combined 40.5 per cent stake from investors in Forever Top (Asia) through two agreements on September 30, increasing its holding to 72 per cent. Forever Top, the controlling shareholder of i-Cable, owns 43 per cent of the pay-TV operator.
“Upon completion of the sales and purchase agreements, Forever Top will become a controlled corporation of Celestial Pioneer and Dr Cheng Kar-shun,” the exchange filing said. It neither disclosed the names of the investors selling their shares to Celestial, nor the values of the deals.
Founded in 1999, i-Cable provides broadband internet and pay-TV services. It had 754,000 pay-TV subscribers as of June last year, taking a 38 per cent share of the market. Its competitors include Now TV, Viu TV and Hong Kong Broadband Network. Now TV is the largest pay-TV operator in Hong Kong.
Before the transactions, Celestial held 31.5 per cent of Forever Top, David Chiu Tat-cheong, chairman of property developer and hotelier Far East Consortium International, owned 24.5 per cent, Li Sze Lim of Guangzhou R&F Properties held 16 per cent and John Huan Zhao of private-equity firm Hony Capital and Chow Tai Fook each held a 14 per cent stake.
