Apple Daily parent Next Digital to seek liquidation

Just over two months since the closure of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, parent company Next Digital has announced it will seek liquidation as its remaining directors have resigned.

In a notice filed with Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing on Sunday (September 5), board chairman Ip Yut-kin announced the resignation of the four remaining directors of Next Digital. They include himself, Mark Lambert Clifford, Louis Gordon Crovitz and Lam Chung Yan. 

The board members have called for the company’s liquidation to pay former staff and creditors.

“We have concluded that the best interests of shareholders, creditors, employees and other stakeholders will be served by an orderly liquidation, which we hope will result in liquidators being allowed by the Hong Kong government to authorise payments that directors were banned from approving, including for creditors and for former staff," the board members said in a statement.

Next Digital was founded in the 1990s by media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who was jailed in February as part of an operation targeting anti-government protestors. Lai's bank accounts were frozen in May.

In June authorities raided the offices of Next Digital's main paper Apple Daily as part of an investigation into whether it breached Hong Kong's national security law. Several senior executives were arrested and authorities froze the company's assets, ultimately forcing it to halt operations and cease publication of Apple Daily. A million copies of the final edition were sold on June 24. Next Digital has been suspended on Hong Kong stock exchange since June 17.

The media company still operates a digital-only version of Apple Daily in Taiwan which it has been seeking a buyer for.