TPG pays Murdoch unit $214 million for Chinese media company stake

U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital will pay HK$1.66 billion ($213.73 million) for 21st Century Fox-controlled Star Entertainment's remaining stake in a Chinese satellite television operator.

The move is the next step of Rupert Murdoch's slow exit from Chinese media, following News Corp's sale of controlling stakes in three mainland television channels to domestic private equity funds in 2010.

In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late on Friday, Phoenix Satellite Television <2008.HK> said TPG China Media L.P. will become a "substantial shareholder" after taking over Star's entire 12.15 percent stake.

With the sale, Star representatives will also step down from Phoenix's board.

The deal was announced on the same day that Murdoch was re-elected chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc despite protests from shareholder groups who sought to separate the chairman and chief executive positions of the family-dominated company.

Murdoch split News Corp into two companies in May, with News Corp retaining the newspaper and other media assets and Fox holding the movie, TV and other entertainment properties.

Star, a Fox unit, sold its 607 million shares in Phoenix at HK$2.73 per share or a 2.5 percent discount to its HK$2.80 closing price on Friday. No other financial details were disclosed.

Fox was Phoenix's third-largest investor, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Founded in 1992, TPG was among the first U.S.-based private equity firms to establish operations in Asia. The firm's other China investments include the country's best known sportswear brand Li Ning Co Ltd <2331.HK>, investment bank China International Capital Corporation and specialty packaging company HCP Holdings.

($1 = 7.7535 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Clement Tan; Editing by Ron Popeski)