Tuesday, March 14, 2000 RE:LINUX CHINA
BUSINESS
Cheung Wah lines up
key stakes
KAI PETER YU
Cheung Wah Development is expected to
announce a number of tie-ups and investments
in Hong Kong and Southeast Asian companies
after it resumes trading.
The company, a subsidiary of Japan-based
Softbank, was suspended from trading
yesterday, pending announcements of an
unspecified number of transactions.
Chueng Wah is to help transform Lai Sun
Hotels into an Internet-content provider
after the completion of a share-swap
agreement, according to sources.
Chinese-language Web sites ATV.com and
chinastar.com and print and media businesses
would be injected into Lai Sun Hotels as part
of the transaction that would give Cheung
Wah a 10 per cent stake in the company, they
said.
Lai Sun Hotels will be renamed eSun, and its
hotel business would be ejected from the
listed entity.
Cheung Wah also planned to acquire a 3 per
cent stake in Digi Swisscom, Malaysia's
third-largest mobile-telephone operator,
among a number of other deals, the sources
said.
Digi stock surged 29 per cent on the Kuala
Lumpur Stock Exchange yesterday on rumours
of the transaction.
Cheung Wah, to be renamed Softbank
Investment International Strategic, is 61.1
controlled by Internet giant Softbank.
Yoshitaka Kitao, a vice-president at Softbank
and chairman at Cheung Wah, said Softbank
would use Cheung Wah's shares to do deals
but would retain a controlling stake in the
company.
"We'll be doing a lot of things on the equities
side," he said. "But we want to keep at least
50 per cent [of Cheung Wah] for as long as
possible."
Cheung Wah's core-business will be investing
in and providing the backbone services to help
businesses move on-line.
A "Net-trans" fund will be set up under
Cheung Wah to invest in such businesses and
Cheung Wah would take 20 to 30 per cent
stakes in the companies.
Cheung Wah would sell to the companies
packages including the Linux operating
platform, firewalls and other software and
value-added services provided by anti-virus
software company Trend Micro, a fellow
Softbank subsidiary.
Mr Kitao said the packages would be sold in
the mainland through Cheung Wah's 30
distribution centres.
He also said Cheung Wah's logistics network
on the mainland would be upgraded to provide
fulfilment services for the investee
companies. |
