Asia Global Crossing to directly sell some IPO shares
WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Asia Global Crossing Ltd., the pan-Asian telecommunications carrier, said on Wednesday it plans to sell directly to three strategic investors 9.2 million class A common shares as part of an initial public offering.
That would be in addition to an already-announced IPO of 53 million class A shares, said the company, formed in November 1999 as a joint venture between Global Crossing Ltd. (NasdaqNM:GBLX - news), Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) and Softbank Corp. .
The strategic investors are Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. , Singapore Technologies Telemedia and Taiwan's Microelectronics Technology Inc. , Asia Global Crossing said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The price for the IPO shares will be between $14-$16 a share.
If the collective 62.2 million shares are over subscribed, an underwriting group that included Goldman Sachs, Salomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch have an option to buy 9.33 million more shares, according to the filing.
Asia Global Crossing, based in Hamilton, Bermuda, predicted it will make about $1.3 billion in net proceeds from the IPO and a concurrent debt offering.
The money will go toward building its network, investing in telecommunications and Internet companies, repaying outstanding debt under shareholder loans and for general corporate purposes.
Asia Global Crossing has applied to list the class A shares on Nasdaq under the symbol ``AGCX.O'' (Nasdaq:AGCX - news).
When the IPO is completed, Global Crossing will hold a 56.6 percent stake in the company while Microsoft and Softbank will each hold 15.6 percent, the SEC filing said. |
