Carlyle Group will pay about US$1.3 billion for the majority stake in Eastern Multimedia Group (東森集團), one of the nation's largest cable-television operators, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, without saying where it got the information.
Carlyle outbid a mix of financial and industry bidders, including a group that included private-equity rival Newbridge Capital LLC and Liberty Media Corp, the WSJ said on its Web site, without citing anyone.
"Nothing is mature enough to make an announcement now,'' Eastern Multimedia spokesman Johnny Sand said when contacted by telephone yesterday.
He declined to elaborate.
Carlyle's Hong Kong-based spokeswoman Dorothy Lee also declined to comment.
Eastern Multimedia controls almost a quarter of the nation's cable television market. The operator would be the second to be sold in Taiwan in the past four months, as overseas firms bet they can boost profits by introducing new technology and services.
Carlyle is seeking to borrow NT$30 billion (US$927 million) for its bid, three bankers competing to lend the money to the Washington-based buyout fund said last month. The bankers declining to be identified before an official announcement. San Francisco-based Newbridge is teaming up with US content provider Liberty Media Corp on its competing offer, two other people involved in the sale said last month.
Final bidders for the group's Eastern Multimedia Co (
Carlyle wants to buy at least two-thirds of Eastern Multimedia in the first stage of investment, said the bankers. The private equity firm is asking banks to bid to finance the purchase of a 100 percent stake, they said.
The sale comes after Macquarie Media Group, Australia's biggest commercial radio operator, agreed last December to buy Taiwan Broadband Communications (台灣寬頻通訊) from Carlyle for A$1.19 billion (US$890 million), giving it a 12 percent market share.
The US buyout firm bought Taiwan Broadband in 1999 for about US$200 million.
Cable television attracted 4.5 million subscribers in the year to Dec. 31 since being introduced in 1998, according to the Government Information Office (GIO). About 200,000 customers subscribed last year, it said.
Eastern Multimedia had 1.05 million subscribers, or a 23.4 percent market share, as of Dec. 31, followed by China Network Systems Co (中嘉網路) with 21.8 percent and Taiwan Broadband with 13.6 percent, said Huang Ching-yi (黃金益), a GIO official.
Taiwan has set a ceiling of 60 percent for combined direct and indirect holdings by foreign funds in a cable TV operator, Huang said.
Sydney-based Macquarie Media avoided the ceiling in its acquisition by arranging for a local investor to hold preferred stock in Taiwan Broadband.
Eastern Multimedia said March 6 that it was in talks with international and local companies for a possible stake sale. It also owns units that operate news, entertainment and shopping channels.
Carlyle, manager of the largest US buyout fund, has more than US$34.9 billion under management, according to its Web site last month.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS