Finally some good news.
Fez
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Tuesday May 23 6:21 PM ET
Asia Global Crossing Joint Venture Seeks IPO
By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Asia Global Crossing Ltd., a joint venture between Global Crossing Ltd. (NasdaqNM:GBLX - news), Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) and Softbank Corp.(9984.T), filed on Tuesday to go public in an initial stock sale of Class A common stock.
The joint venture was formed in November 1999 to become the first pan-Asian telecommunications carrier to offer integrated Internet, data, voice and Web-hosting services to wholesale and business customers in the region, according to a preliminary prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Asia Global Crossing said it hoped to raise $100 million in the offering but that figure was only included in the filing to calculate the SEC registration fee and could be raised.
The company did not reveal how many shares it plans to sell, the projected price range or the planned stock exchange on which it will seek a listing in the prospectus. However, those details are expected in future filings.
Asia Global Crossing said it would use the proceeds, combined with funds from a concurrent debt offering, from the offering to build its network, make investments in Internet and telecommunications companies, repay debt and general corporate purposes.
The Bermuda-based company posted $75.8 million in revenue and $14.3 million in net income during the first three months of this year, according to the prospectus.
It is building an end-to-end network across Asia that will likely include subsea cables, backhaul connections to its landing sites, national networks, city fiber rings, telehouses and Web-hosting centers.
It expects that the network will connect the major commercial and financial centers in Asia by the end of 2001 and will offer worldwide services across the Global Crossing network, according to the prospectus.
Asia Global Crossing agreed to form two joint ventures with Singapore Technologies Telemedia on May 20 to build backhaul and telehouses in Singapore as well as to build and operate a data center in the country.
Gary Winnick is co-chairman of Asia Global Crossing and is also the founder of the original Global Crossing and shares the position with Lodwrick Cook also of Global Crossing.
John Legere serves as the chief executive officer and previously was the senior vice president of Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news) and president of its operations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Prior to that, he served as CEO and president of AT&T Corp. Asia-Pacific.
Prior to the offering, Global Crossing holds 93 percent of the outstanding shares of common stock while Microsoft and Softbank have 3.5 percent each, according to the prospectus.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Salomon Smith Barney are the joint book-running managers for the offering with Merrill Lynch & Co. serving as the joint lead manager. |
