25 April 2006

Eastern Multimedia Grp To Sell Stakes To Carlyle
Dow Jones International News
(c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

TAIPEI (Dow Jones)--Taiwan's Eastern Multimedia Group will sell stakes in its cable operator and television station to U.S.-based Carlyle Group (CAY.XX), a group official said Tuesday.

"We finalized the deal with Carlyle yesterday and will seek approval from the government this week," Johnny Sand, spokesman for the group, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The cable operator is Eastern Multimedia Co., and the TV station operator is Eastern Broadcasting Co.

Sand declined to disclose the size of the stakes or the total value of the deal. The Wall Street Journal Asia reported last week Carlyle would pay US$1.3 billion for a majority stake in the cable operator. [ 25-04-06 0220GMT ]

Sand said Eastern Multimedia Group was also in talks with Liberty Media Corp. (L) and Newbridge Capital Inc. (NBG.XX) before signing the deal with Carlyle.

A spokeswoman for Carlyle, who asked not to be named, declined to comment on the matter.

Eastern Multimedia Group is Taiwan's largest media group in terms of revenue, and Eastern Multimedia Co. is the island's second-largest cable-service operator with 1.06 million household subscribers, after China Network Systems Co.

The cable TV unit, Eastern Multimedia, generated revenue of US$294 million and net profit of US$15 million in 2005, according to Media Partners Asia Ltd., a leading media analysis provider.

Eastern Broadcasting operates seven cable TV channels. The group also operates four home-shopping channels under Eastern Home Shopping Co.

The group had total revenue last year of US$1.8 billion, up from US$1.5 billion in 2004, Sand said.

The group's chairman, Gary Wang, owns around 70% of cable operator Eastern Multimedia, around 65% of Eastern Broadcasting, and wholly owns the home-shopping channel company, Sand said earlier.

Eastern Broadcasting, which also operates five TV channels in the U.S., plans to expand its overseas operations further, with Vietnam the next target market, "due to limited revenue growth in Taiwan," Wang said earlier.

The Eastern Multimedia deal follows Macquarie Media Group, 20%-owned by Macquarie Bank Ltd. (MBL.AU), buying in December a controlling stake in Taiwan Broadband Communications, one of Taiwan's four major cable operators, for US$886 million. Macquarie said then there was potential for further consolidation in the market.