AT&T Wireless Group Will Divest 15% Stake in Japan Telecom
--From AOL.-- Cooters
Tokyo, Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- AT&T Wireless Group will divest its equity stake in Japan Telecom Co. following NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s $9.8 billion investment in the U.S. mobile phone carrier, AT&T Corp. said.
Prior to yesterday's agreement with NTT DoCoMo, Japan Telecom was AT&T's main strategic partner in Japan. AT&T Wireless holds about half of parent AT&T's 15 percent stake in Japan's third-largest telecommunications carrier, an AT&T spokesman said. At yesterday's close, the half held by the wireless unit was worth about 87 billion yen ($788 million).
``AT&T Wireless will need to withdraw its investment in Japan Telecom in an orderly way over the next few months,'' said Greg Brutus, public relations director at AT&T Asia Pacific Group Ltd. in Hong Kong. ``The agreement between NTT DoCoMo and AT&T Wireless is exclusive.''
No decision has been reached on how AT&T Wireless will dispose of the shares. ``A range of options will be considered,'' he said. He confirmed that transferring the stake to its parent company or selling the shares on the open market are among the options.
Brutus also said that AT&T's representative on Japan Telecom's board of directors ``will resign immediately to avoid any conflict of interest.'' AT&T and the U.K.'s British Telecommunications Plc each acquired 15 percent of Japan Telecom last year. They each paid about $1.01 billion for the shares, or 1.15 million yen per share.
``We are not aware of these developments,'' said Japan Telecom spokesman Shoichiro Ishihara, when asked about earlier media reports AT&T would sell its stake in Japan Telecom.
Japan Telecom shares rose 30,000 yen, or 1.6 percent, to 1.91 million yen after falling the previous two days.
Nov/30/2000 23:46 ET |
