Next Digital Halts Share Trading After Freeze Order

The Hong Kong stock exchange halted trading of Next Digital shares ahead of market opening on Monday after the Security Bureau moved to freeze assets belonging to its controlling shareholder, Jimmy Lai.

The company said it requested the trading halt after the bureau announced the freeze following the close of trading on Friday. The freeze order was the first issued under new powers conferred by the Beijing-imposed national security law.

Lai is facing three security-related charges, and is already serving a 14-month sentence after being convicted of taking part in unauthorised assemblies in August 2019. He is due in court on Monday to face further unauthorised assembly charges relating to a gathering on October 1, 2019, along with nine other pro-democracy campaigners.

In a brief statement to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the company said the shares were frozen "pending the release of an announcement in relation to, among other matters, statement issued by the Hong Kong Security Bureau about freeze in the assets and shareholdings in the Company held by the Company’s controlling shareholder, Mr Lai Chee Ying, which is inside information for the Company".

Lai is understood to hold 71 percent of the shares in Next Digital, which publishes the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper. The freeze order also included the property held in local banks by three companies owned by him.

The police’s national security department charged Lai with collusion with a foreign country to endanger national security on December 11. It brought two further charges of conspiracy on April 16 this year.

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