Roughly 300 ATV employees will lose their jobs while another 130 jobs and the station's final March 31 edition of the Miss Asia Pageant hang in the balance - as financiers seek to hammer out an acceptable agreement with provisional liquidator Deloitte.

ATV majority shareholder Wong Ching and angel investor Si Rongbin have until Thursday morning to reach a deal to keep the cash-strapped company running until the April 1 expiry of its broadcast license.

Failure to agree on new terms will mean the station's entire 450-odd staff will likely be let go, with staff already up in arms over Deloitte's aborted attempt to immediately sack staff on Monday.

High Court judge Jonathan Harris said ATV's last gasps for breath had "dragged on for ages". He said "something has gone very wrong with the management of ATV for years and that is why it is now in debt to the tune of HK$2 billion".

Harris said it was not his role to help the parties negotiate, or to second guess Deloitte's conduct. He added that liquidators were expected to act conservatively and avoid further accumulation of liabilities.

The 59-year-old broadcaster has been teetering on the brink of collapse for months, having repeatedly missed wage payments. This includes salaries for the past two months and more recently failing to pay its insurance premiums.

Harris Chang, representative for Deloitte, told China Daily staff were effectively headed to an uninsured workplace - a separate criminal matter.

Representative for Si, Ronald Sun, told the High Court his client was prepared to offer a loan to cover HK$16 million in back wages as well as HK$2.5 million to cover March wages, which will be treated as a loan for the station or as a gift if ATV perishes under its mountain of debt.

Si's offer came with conditions, including the laying off of 300 staff but the retention of at least a 120-strong skeleton staff to maintain minimum operations. Back pay for January and February will be guaranteed for the remaining core staff so long as they sign on to serve out the remainder of March.

The news team will need to maintain operation, as part of ATV's licensing conditions.

Failure to find the much-needed capital will likely send liquidators back to work, dismembering the company and its assets to repay creditors in the coming weeks.

tim@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 03/02/2016 page8)