ATV drama renews as liquidator Deloitte and mainland Chinese investor swap breach accusations over deal buying broadcaster time

A war of words broke out between ailing broadcaster ATV’s provisional liquidator and its mainland investor as the opposing sides accused each other of breaching terms and conditions in a last-minute deal that supposedly bought more time to keep the 59-year-old station on air until April 1.

China Culture Media, the mainland investor that promised on Friday to inject HK$8 million of funding in an agreement with the station’s provisional liquidator Deloitte to keep it running, said on Tuesday it would seek court approval to take back Deloitte’s right to carry out the liquidation.

In a strongly-worded statement issued Tuesday, the Beijing-based media group said it had provided an additional HK$5 million of funding as audited by Deloitte and paid current staff March salaries. It had also set aside another HK$3 million for the station’s operations, but preferred to keep it on hold due to Deloitte’s recent actions, it noted.

READ MORE: ATV investor fails to come up with HK$8m promised to keep station on air, says liquidator Deloitte

The latest move was taken in response to two statements issued by Deloitte on Monday that the mainland investor controlled by Si Rongbin had failed to cough up the HK$8 million.

Deloitte on Monday also denied it had asked the beleaguered company’s staff to give up their right to seek overdue pay under re-employment contracts signed with the broadcaster to keep it going.

But China Culture Media’s statement said: “We would clarify that it is totally in accordance with Deloitte’s proposal that we have had ATV employees ink the contracts stipulating they cannot pursue their outstanding January and February wages immediately and the accounting firm has also inspected the process.”

While Deloitte said China Culture Media was “in breach of the terms of its agreement”, the mainland investor hit back and laid blame on the accounting firm.

READ MORE: ‘This agreement is invalid ...’ Hong Kong’s top labour official criticises ATV’s move to stop staff seeking pay owed, threatens prosecution

Meanwhile a concern group was established by more than 100 former and current ATV employees from all departments in an effort to pursue unpaid wages.

“We call for more clarification from all parties,” said Tsang Hin-kwok, convenor of the concern group. “Our representatives would meet with the Labour Department, Deloitte and lawmakers tomorrow [Wednesday] afternoon to discuss about related matters.”

Tsang, a former engineer who worked with the broadcaster for 18 years, said it would be better-off for the station to be liquidated given that it seemed incapable of paying off debts that amounted to billions of dollars.

“We would like to make it clear that ATV staff’s benefits are paramount and should be prioritised,”Tsang noted. “Specifically, Deloitte need to give us a better idea of what’s going on with the liquidation.”