Chinese property magnate acquires major share in Hong Kong media firm

Chinese property magnate Kaisa Groups has agreed to buy a major share in Hong Kong media firm Sing Tao News.

According to a report by South China Morning Post, Kwok Hiu-ting, the 26-year-old daughter of Kaisa Groups founder, agreed to pay HK$369.8 million (USD47.7 million) last week to buy 28 per cent of Sing Tao News Corporation from the company's chairman Charles Ho Tsu-kwok.

This can be seen as an attempt to bring the Hong Kong media under the control of people linked to mainland Chinese groups.

According to the SCMP report, this deal is the latest foray by tycoons from mainland China into Hong Kong media industry.

In 2015, Alibaba Group Holding had bought the South China Morning Post and in the same year, Shanghai media magnate Li Ruigang became an indirect investor in Television Broadcasts Limited, Hong Kong's largest television broadcaster.

In December last year, Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, a vocal Beijing critic, was sentenced to jail.

He is one of the highest-profile figures charged under the draconian National Security Law imposed by China last year.

The law criminalizes secession, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces and carries with it strict prison terms. It came into effect from July 1.

Since then, a number of former pro-democracy lawmakers have been arrested.

( With inputs from ANI )