PCCW reworks assets, plants for sale sign

Hong Kong - As rumor mounts over whether Richard Li will acquire TVB, the boss of PCCW has announced plans to roll the company's media and telco assets into a new entity HKT Group and sell up to 45% to investors.

The board of directors of PCCW have approved the initiative of reorganising its core assets including telecommunication services, media and IT solutions business under the HKT Group.

PCCW said the move would improve efficiencies and consolidate all elements of its quadruple play, which allows advertisers to buy across its entire suite of online, mobile, IPTV and pay TV services.

The company added that it will ramp up in-house content production to add variety to its channel offerings and improve advertising revenues. Heavy promotion of its cross-platform services are expected to roll out in Hong Kong.

So far the group has refused to comment on a potential buyer, but said the reorganisation would simplify the corporate structure and achieve cost saving.

The group's 2007 annual report unveiled its revenue in TV and content business segments grew 70% to HK$1,700 million. Along with the launch of a high-definition TV (HDTV) service, it dominated the local pay-TV market.

Its property development subsidiary Pacific Century Premium Devlopments (PCPD), by contrast, saw revenue decrease 57% to 3,100 million due to lower revenue recognized from property completions from the Bel-Air project.