Li is not letting us down! CyberWorks, Taiwan Cellular in Alliance Talks
By Chad Rademan
Taiwan Cellular Says It's in Talks With Pacific Century CyberWorks on Pact(Update2)
(Rewrites throughout, updates stock prices, additional
background on Taiwan Cellular in second section.)
Taipei, March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Pacific Century CyberWorks
Ltd., fresh from its agreement to buy Hong Kong's dominant phone
company, is now considering an alliance with Taiwan Cellular
Corp., the Taiwan company said.
Taiwan's No. 2 mobile phone services provider was approached
by Hong Kong-based bankers on behalf of CyberWorks, which is
looking to establish some form of partnership, Taiwan Cellular
President Joseph Fan said. The Hong Kong company is seeking closer
ties through various means, including share swaps, joint share
sales or other business tie-ups, the Taiwan company said.
An alliance with closely-held Taiwan Cellular, which has 3.5
million customers, would help extend the reach of CyberWorks'
growing Internet broadband service. The Taiwan company, which
rolled out its first wireless Internet services less than two
weeks ago, would gain a key partner in its strategy to make
handsets the platform for accessing the Internet from mobile
devices.
Though the talks are preliminary, Fan said the two companies
could even set up a holding company, which would list overseas
using American depositary receipts.
``You have to look at regional development in terms of cell
operators and convergence with the Internet business,' Fan said.
``There's never been something like this in the pipeline' for
Taiwan Cellular.
Shares of Pacific Electric Wire & Cable Co., the largest
shareholder of Taiwan Cellular, rose 1.9 percent to a record
NT$40.50. CyberWorks fell 3.8 percent to HK$22.95.
Asian Web
CyberWorks, a 10-month old Internet investment company,
earlier this month agreed to pay as much as $38 billion for Hong
Kong phone company Cable & Wireless HKT Ltd. It also announced a
pact with Legend Holdings Ltd., China's No. 1 computer maker, to
provide broadband Internet services in China.
Taiwan Cellular is positioning itself as a leader in mobile
phone technology. On March 1, the company introduced a service
using Wireless Application Protocol, or WAP technology, that lets
users receive data and Internet-related information via their
handsets. Financial data such as real-time stock quotes have
proven most popular with customers so far, Fan said.
Taiwan, with 22 million people, had 12.3 million mobile phone
subscribers and 3.1 million Internet accounts at the end of
January, according to the Ministry of Transportation and
Communications.
Taiwan Cellular posted sales last year of NT$26.8 billion
($870 million), more than double the previous year, as demand
surged for new mobile accounts. Net income nearly tripled to
NT$9.2 billion.
Besides Pacific Electric, the company's major shareholders
include Taiwan's Acer Group, Fubon Group, Evergreen Group,
Continental Engineering Corp., and U.S.-based GTE Corp.
Taiwan Cellular has already applied to the R.O.C. Over-the-
Counter Securities Exchange and expects to list its shares in the
third quarter of this year.
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