Murdoch China exit rumbles on after TV sale
21ST Century Fox owner Rupert Murdoch has rolled back his Asian media interests after selling a stake in a Chinese satellite TV operator.
US private equity firm TPG Capital will pay 1.66bn Hong Kong dollars (£132.2m) for 21st Century Fox-controlled Star Entertainment’s remaining stake in Phoenix Satellite Television.
The move is the next step of Rupert Murdoch’s slow exit from Chinese media, following News Corp’s sale of controlling stakes in three mainland television channels to domestic private equity funds in 2010.
In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Phoenix Satellite Television said TPG China Media will become a “substantial shareholder” after taking over Star’s entire 12.15 per cent stake.
With the sale, Star representatives will also step down from Phoenix’s board.
The deal was announced on the same day that Murdoch was re-elected chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox despite protests from shareholder groups who sought to separate the chairman and chief executive positions of the family-dominated company.
Murdoch split News Corp into two companies in May, with News Corp retaining the newspaper and other media assets and Fox holding the movie, TV and other entertainment properties.
Star, a Fox unit, sold its 607m shares in Phoenix at $2.73 Hong Kong dollars per share or a 2.5 per cent discount to its $2.80 Hong Kong dollars closing price on Friday. No other financial details were disclosed. Fox was Phoenix’s third-largest investor, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Founded in 1992, TPG was among the first US-based private equity firms to establish operations in Asia.