SHAW Brothers (Hong Kong) Ltd, the biggest shareholder in the city's largest broadcaster, said talks by its controlling shareholder to sell its stake in the firm have been terminated because of market turmoil.

All discussions related to possible stake sale by Shaw Holdings Inc were ended "due to the present tumultuous situation in the financial markets," the firm said in a statement to Hong Kong's stock exchange yesterday.

Shaw joins PCCW Ltd and Huawei Technologies Co among victims of deals canceled in the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, which has hit equity values and pushed up borrowing costs, Bloomberg News said. Country Garden Holdings Co Chairman Yeung Kwok Keung had been seeking a bank loan of about HK$7 billion (US$902 million) to fund his purchase of control of Shaw, two people familiar with the deal said in June.

"Yeung or whoever needs to count on such a big amount of bank loans to finance the purchase may find it impossible to get the money amid the credit crunch," said Kenny Tang, director of Tung Tai Securities Co. "We may see more deals fall apart for not being able to get funding."