Over at RB, someone on CMGIOT site and PCCLF site posted this news item about China Online disposing of $3.7 billion worth its shares of pcclf. However, it looks as though pcclf is currently up :)
By Hoi Leung
STORY: CHINA Online (Bermuda) said it would gradually dispose of its $3.7 billion worth of share holdings in Pacific Century CyberWorks after deciding that PCCW has shifted the focus of its business strategy.
The company said it had already sold a a small number of shares of PCCW for $176 million, adding that it still did not know what to do with the money.
China Online said its directors were thinking of further disposing of its remaining shares in PCCW.
''The directors of the company consider that there has been a divergence in the business strategy of PCCW since the PCCW shares were originally acquired by the company,''said Stephen Law, director of China Online.
Last year, China Online had signalled plans to sell its holdings in PCCW but withdrew it in September, reducing the size of PCCW shares being offered to investors from 560 million shares, or 7.28 per cent of PCCW, to about 230 million shares, or only 2.99 per cent of the company.
Since then, PCCW has been aggressively purchasing companies, making at least six acquisitions worth about $650 million since October last year. On Thursday it announced that it had acquired 5 per cent of Li Ka-shing's Internet business Tom.com.
China Online's disposal of PCCW shares would release part of its Capital for future investment and was in line with the company's strategy of expanding its existing business.
The company said it sold a total of 9.7 million shares of PCCW between 3 January and 2 February at the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.
That number of shares sold represented 4.85 per cent of its PCCW share holdings.
China Online sold the shares at a price range of approximately $16 and $20.10 each.
After the sale, China Online had reduced its stake in PCCW from 2.2 per cent stake to 2.1 per cent or a total of 190.3 million shares in PCCW.
PCCW shares closed on Thursday at $19.3 each, which values China Online's holdings of PCCW shares at $3.67 billion.
The company planned to further dispose of its holdings of PCCW shares gradually, Mr Law said.
The company had no specific plans on how to use the net proceeds or for any acquisitions, he added.
PCCW is an independent third party not connected with China Online, its subsidiaries and respective associates, said China Online.
The PCCW shares sold accounted for more than 15 per cent of the $520.8 million consolidated net tangible assets of China Online as of 31 December 1998.
On 26 January, China Online announced it had acquired a 10.5 stake of interest in Sun Hung Kai & Company after the latter moved into the online electronic stockbrokerage business. It paid $240.5 million for the Acquisition.
Founded in 1978, China Online sold pagers imported from Japan and the United States. It went public in 1991, but its original shareholders sold their stake in and relinquished control to China Strategic Holdings in 1996, after which China Online entered the Chinese mobile telephone market.
China Strategic Holdings and China Online chairman Wong Kam-fu holds 68 per cent and 17 per cent of the two respective companies.
China Online had itself controlled 73 per cent shareholding of Tricom Holdings Ltd before the latter was taken over by Richard Li Tzar-kai's group and renamed PCCW.
The company made a net profit of $365.74 million in the first six months of 1999 against a loss of $564 million for the whole of 1998. The loss was partly due to provisions of $363 million for interest in a subsidiary not consolidated.
China Online said it would diversify into provision of technical services for data communications products, system integration and wireless communication products, system integration and wireless.
from online.hkstandard.com
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