China's Unicom Closer To Foreign Listing -
Report
BEIJING -- China Unicom, China's second telecommunications carrier, has
concluded negotiations with several foreign partners to terminate joint
venture agreements, clearing the way for the company to list abroad, official
media reported Thursday.
Still struggling to win market share from former monopoly China Telecom
(CHL), China Unicom is expected to seek more than $1 billion next year
through a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock
Market.
China Unicom's plans to list this year were postponed when the Ministry of
Information Industry ruled that the company's joint venture agreements
breached a ban on foreign investment in the telecommunications sector.
The company had used a vehicle known as China-China-Foreign to channel
foreign investment into its projects. This involved offshore companies setting
up a foreign invested-joint venture which then invested in a project with
Unicom.
All projects involving CCF were frozen since Oct. 1 and China Unicom was
ordered to negotiate termination agreements with its foreign partners.
The official China Daily reported that China Unicom "has reached
agreement with several foreign partners to terminate the so-called CCF
projects, paving the way for the company to be listed abroad."
"We have made some agreements and will pick up the pace to complete the
deal with the rest of the foreign partners," Wang Jianzhou, China Unicom
vice-president said in the report.
China Unicom plans to invest 7 billion yuan ($1=CNY8.28) in a Code
Division Multiple Access, or CDMA, mobile telecommunications network to
rival the existing Global System for Mobile telecommunications, or GSM,
service provided by China Telecom. China Unicom was created by the
government to take on the former monopoly giant China Telecom. A third
state-run telecommunications carrier, China Netcom, began operations this
year.
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