Money Matters | Opinion: The identity of TVB’s true controller lays bare for all to see
According to agreements seen by Money Matters, Chinese media mogul Li Ruigang owns 79 per cent of the non-voting shares -- which should be counted the same as voting shares -- giving him 20 per cent of TVB.
Very few people in Hong Kong’s media industry take Charles Chan Kwok-keung as the genuine controlling shareholder of TVB, given his reputation as the “King of Shell Companies,” and the political importance of the city’s dominant free TV to Beijing.
Yet, it was still shocking to see his role spelt out in a contract as the frontman for the Chinese media mogul Li Ruigang, an agreement that’s signed by a venerable list of Who’s Who of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
It’s shocking for the contract’s blatant contradiction to our laws; the fact that it was left unchallenged for years, and the silence by the authorities following its accidental revelation.
Ever since the late Sir Run Run Shaw sold 26 per cent of TVB in 2011 to a holding company called Young Lion Holdings Ltd., Chan had been presented as the man in charge.
This is because Hong Kong’s Broadcasting Ordinance stipulates that only a permanent resident of the city can be a “qualified voting controller” of a domestic free TV license.
