This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 18, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Asian Broadcasting Network (M) Sdn Bhd (ABN) is auctioning off its equipment, a clear indication that the pay-television (TV) services provider has no intention of reviving its business.

A notice on GoIndustry DoveBid, an online marketplace for auctioning owned by US-based Liquidity Services Inc, lists a host of audio, visual, broadcast and transmission equipment owned by ABN for sale until March 20.

Most of the equipment appear to have been purchased in 2013, the year ABN launched its digital cable TV service with then-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak officiating the ceremony.

A check with the Companies Commission of Malaysia shows that for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2015 (FY15), ABN’s accumulated loss amounted to RM227.85 million. Total assets stood at RM381.95 million, against total liabilities of RM437.36 million.

The company’s FY15 income statement, the last available, showed that it incurred a net annual loss of RM60.58 million, with a revenue of RM4.88 million.

Over the past two years, ABN has been making news with regard to its winding-up process, which can be traced back to mid-2017, when the company’s vendor Sony (M) Sdn Bhd obtained a court order to liquidate the company.

In the middle of last year, local media also reported that ABN’s contractors had lodge police reports over non-receipt of payments after services had been rendered.

While the profitability of the pay TV industry has been falling in recent years, the sour ending of the company that marketed itself as a serious rival to Astro in the pay TV sector was not previously expected.

The company is 70%-controlled by Tan Sri Ketheeswaran M Kanagaratnam, the previously well-connected businessman better known as Kenneth Eswaran or KK Eswaran, and his wife Puan Sri Vivienne Ketheeswaran, through their wholly-owned private vehicle, The ABN Media Group Sdn Bhd. Eswaran, the previous president of the Malaysian Associated Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, was known for his close ties with Najib.

Eswaran is also the executive chairman of Pinehill Pacific Bhd, which last September disposed of its 3,642 hectares (ha) oil palm-planted land in Teluk Intan, Perak to United Plantations Bhd for RM413.6 million cash.

Loss-making Pinehill Pacific still has land in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province for planting with oil palm, with some 8,000ha reportedly already planted with the crop recently.

Meanwhile, the remaining equity in ABN is owned by Kurnia Mantap Sdn Bhd (20%) and Mutu Pedoman Sdn Bhd (10%).

Kurnia Mantap is 90%-owned by Tan Sri Mohamad Noor Abdul Rahim and 10%-owned by Datuk Nik Mohd Amin Nik Abu Bakar, both of whom are also independent non-executive directors of Pinehill Pacific.

Mohamad Noor held various positions in the government sector, and his last position was home ministry secretary-general.

Mutu Pedoman is 90%-owned by former Armed Forces Fund Board chairman Admiral Tan Sri Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor and 10%-owned by Azmei Ismail.