ICAB-18M shares...that's a lot a shares...
Wharf's I-Cable Rises as Much as 19% in Today's Trading Debut
Hong Kong, Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- I-Cable Communications Ltd., Wharf (Holdings) Ltd.'s multimedia arm, rose as much as 19 percent in its debut trading session after it raised $486 million in its initial share sale.
The stock rose as much as HK$2.01, or 19 percent, to HK$12.50 from its initial HK$10.49 price that international investors paid. Its Hong Kong shares were priced at HK$10.39 before local government duties. It was recently quoted at HK$12.25, and was the second most actively traded stock with HK$235.3 million ($30 million) of shares changing hands.
Hong Kong's only cable television network, which will soon operate the city's second broadband Internet service, sold 360 million shares at HK$10.49 each, the top of a range given to investors, said Merrill Lynch & Co., which directed the global sale.
Investors had agreed to exchange shares around HK$11.49 apiece in what is known as the grey market, traders said.
The company will also start trading <18 million American depositary shares> -- each representing 20 underlying i-cable shares -- at $27 each, on the Nasdaq stock market later today. Investors applied for more than 15 times the shares available, bankers involved in the sale said.
I-Cable says it has more than 430,000 pay-TV subscribers, about 26 percent of the total homes in Hong Kong with access to cable, and about 70,000 Internet customers. Its broadband Internet service, originally scheduled to start at the end of this year, will start in early 2000, which would allow subscribers to connect to the Internet more than 100 times faster than through dial-up modems.
Wharf will retain about 80 percent of i-Cable after it sells 18.4 percent of its issued capital, giving the company an enterprise value -- the sum of its debt and equity -- of about $2.5 billion. Wharf's shares fell 20 cents, or 1 percent, to HK$20.95.
The i-Cable sale can be increased by 15 percent if the managers use an option to sell more securities to meet demand.
Merrill Lynch was the global arranger of the sale. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., ABN Amro Holding NV, CLSA Global Emerging Markets, HSBC Holdings Plc, BNP Prime Peregrine Ltd., SG Securities (HK) Ltd. and Bank of China helped sell the shares.
Nov/23/1999 21:25
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