BEIJING – Chinese businessman Nelson Wong Kam-fu has made a surprise takeover move for PCCW, the Hong Kong telecoms group that operates the Now Broadband TV platform.

Last year the company was on the receiving end of two complicated bids, including one from its tycoon owner Richard Li Kar-tzai. The new one is just as strange.

Wong's Smart Rich Energy Finance is a credit card security firm with a market value of some HK$2.1 billion ($270 million). At the price it says it is offering, PCCW would be valued at $8.7 billion.

In a statement PCCW said that it had not received "any credible offers."

Wong, who claims to have the moral backing of mainland China 's Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region appears to be motivated by nationalism. "If Hong Kong people . . don't want this important strategic asset to fall into foreign hands, they should support my proposal," he said. At a press conference he said his bid would be financed by bank loans and an unspecified share issue.

Now Broadband TV is the world's leading exponent of Broadband Television, or Internet Protocol TV. In June it had 818,000 pay-TV subscribers, putting it within a whisker of traditional cable TV provider I-Cable on 830,000 subscriptions.

© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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