Chaz: Asia stuff for you.
Re: Hutchison Whampoa - Cisco & Unicom - Hutchison & Unicom (note CDMA reference at conclusion):
>> Hutchison forges ahead with mobile Internet plans
Total Telecom staff
09 June 2000
Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa is stepping up its attack on the mobile Internet market, with plans to bid for third-generation licenses in Hong Kong and Sweden, and its mobile phone unit earmarking HK$600 million ($77 million) to expand its Orangeworld wireless data service.
Hutchison said it will team with Swedish holding company Investor to bid for a 3G license in the Swedish beauty contest, which will be held in November. And Bloomberg News reported on Friday that Hutchison Telecom, the company controlled by Hutchison, with stakes held by Motorola and NTT DoCoMo, will bid in Hong Kong.
In addition, the Hong Kong mobile company will up its spend on the Orangeworld mobile Internet service it launched two weeks ago, with 85 content providers offering services from 230 sites. The company hopes to increase the users of the service from 10,000 to 400,000 by the end of the year, Bloomberg reported.
Hutchison Whampoa has already bagged a U.K. 3G license, through TIW UMTS, a venture with Canadian telecoms group TIW. The Hong Kong company holds 90.1% of the joint venture, which is also planning to bid for a French license in the first half of 2001.
Hutchison said it was confident of winning a license in Hong Kong, where it has a 33% share of the mobile market, but it urged the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) to choose auction over 'beauty contest', arguing that a beauty contest would be ineffective due to differences in the services and prices offered by bidders.
Hong Kong has generally preferred to award licenses on merit but has been pushed to review the practice in the light of the recent lucrative U.K. auctions. <<
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>> Cisco And Unicom Get It Together
Steve Riseborough
Total Telecom Asia
05 June 2000
U.S. networks giant Cisco Systems and number two Chinese Carrier China Unicom announced a strategic alliance on Friday.
In a two-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the companies agreed to extend their existing relationship, primarily to allow Unicom to develop new services and get them to market faster.
This is the second alliance Unicom has announced in the space of a week after tying up its joint venture agreement with Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa last Wednesday.
In a similar vein to the Hutchison deal, Cisco will offer Unicom "business policy consulting" as well as technology and products.
The companies plan joint marketing campaigns for the Unicom services that receive Cisco accreditation, the first of which is expected to be a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) offering.
China Unicom plans to invest $12 billion over the next two years, following its flotation in June, in order to build cellular, data transmission and long-distance networks, especially IP-based network services.
The company hopes this expansion will put it in a stronger position to compete with state leviathan China Telecom. <<
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>> Hutchison buys Unicom shares to gain foothold in China
Alison Leung
Reuters
31 May 2000
Hutchison Whampoa Ltd on Wednesday won a key foothold in China's rapidly expanding telecommunications sector with a deal to buy US$400 million worth of shares in China Unicom Ltd's pending initial public offering.
The deal also includes a broad cooperation framework between Hutchison and Unicom's parent, China United Telecommunications Corp, that paves the way for various mainland telecom joint ventures between the two companies.
"In particular, Hutchison and China United Telecom have also undertaken to form a technical support and consultancy co-operative joint venture in China," they said in a statement.
"The scope of the co-operative joint venture business will be nationwide, providing telecom-related consultancy and training in areas of network planning, design and optimisation, operation maintenance, marketing and sales and customer services."
The alliance with China's number two telecom provider marks the latest step in Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's efforts to build a global telecommunications empire.
Hutchison, his main international investment vehicle, owns a 23 percent stake in U.S-based VoiceStream Wireless Corp and has recently launched a drive to acquire third-generation mobile (3G) telecom licences across Europe.
The China deal stakes out strategic new territory for the Hong Kong conglomerate ahead of foreign rivals as China prepares for World Trade Organisation entry and telecom liberalisation.
"This deal is a stepping stone in China for Hutchison," said Dennis Leung, research manager at J&A Securities, adding that it would not have an immediate effect on Hutchison's earnings.
"We are very excited to be given the opportunity to invest in China Unicom Ltd. Access to the mainland market also extends our telecommunications footprint to cover most of the major markets in the world," a Hutchison spokesman said in the statement.
Hutchison shares got a late kick from the news on Wednesday and finished up HK$7.25 or 8.76 percent at HK$90.00, after hitting a intraday high of HK$91.50.
The shares, which also were propelled by France Telecom's 31 billion-pound deal to buy British mobile phone group Orange Plc, outperformed the blue chip Hang Seng Index, which rose 5.17 percent to close at 14,713.86 points.
Under the Unicom share deal, Hutchison will subscribe for US$400 million shares issued in the group's pending initial public offering in June. Unicom is expected to issue 2.459 billion shares at HK$11.50-HK$14.50 each in a flotation worth up to US$5.26 billion if overallotment options are exercised.
At the HK$13 mid-point of the pricing range, the offer would be worth US$4.1 billion excluding the allotment option. Hutchison's stake at that amount would account for about 10 percent of the offer shares and about two percent of Unicom's total share capital.
Dealing in the shares is expected to start trading in New York on June 21 and in Hong Kong on June 22.
Hutchison and China United Telecommunications said all of their joint activities would be carried out within the regulatory framework of the Chinese government, and in accordance with the market opening schedules in China's accession to the World Trade Organisation, the statement said.
Cash-rich Hutchison could offer financial muscle and technical expertise to help China United Telecommunications develop U.S. CDMA mobile phone technology, said Stanley Ng, research manager at Mansion House Research.
"China's market is vast and Chinese companies will need foreign investment to back them up and Hutchison has the money," he added. <<
- Eric - |
