Local businessman Kevin Ho King Lun has told Portugal’s newswire Lusa he expects to sign a deal with Global Media Group in Portugal next month to acquire 30 percent of the Portuguese group’s capital, the Portuguese-language radio channel of government-owned broadcaster TDM reported yesterday.
The report quoted Ho as saying that the deal, originally scheduled to be signed in March, had been delayed “for no specific reason.” Ho also said that both sides were currently readying the necessary legal papers to finalise the deal.
According to the report, Ho’s KNJ Investment Limited plans to invest 17.5 million euros (165 million patacas) in Global Media Group, which owns a string of media companies such as the Lisbon daily Diario de Noticias, radio station TSF, regional weekly Jornal do Fundao and Porto daily Jornal de Noticias.
Planning for the acquisition began last year, according to previous Portuguese media reports.
Global Media Group is currently owned by several individual investors as well as Banco Comercial Portugues and Banco Novo.
Ho, a nephew of Edmund Ho Hau Wah, Macau’s first chief executive, told Lusa there were no plans to reduce the number of staff of Global Media Group after the deal, the first major Chinese investment in a Portuguese media company.
KNJ Investment is engaged in real-estate, health care and restaurants.
