SK Telecom close to selling off stake to NTT DoCoMo of Japan
SK Telecom (SKT), the nation's largest wireless carrier, is close to forming a strategic
alliance with NTT DoCoMo, a leading Japanese telecom company, industry sources
here said yesterday.
According to the sources, an official announcement of the partnership is imminent and
could come as soon as this week.
Negotiations for the alliance have been underway since last year, when SKT was
preparing to bid for a 3G (third-generation)-telecom service license, called IMT-2000
here.
So far they have made little headway, mainly due to differences over the size of the
stake in SKT to be sold off to NTT DoCoMo under the alliance, the procedure for the
stake sale, and because of the sluggish stock market.
Earlier this week, however, there were signs of rapid progress as the Japanese
company dispatched a group of working-level officials to Korea for negotiations.
The NTT DoCoMo officials are reportedly holding final talks over specifics of the deal
including the price of the stock with SKT and SK Group officials, with the presence of
officials from a law firm and an accounting firm managing the negotiations.
The Japanese are scheduled to return home late this afternoon after the talks.
The strategic alliance between SKT and NTT DoCoMo involves the transfer of a
14.5-percent stake worth $5 to 6 billion.
Although other matters still must be finalized, such as the approval of chief executive
officers and boards of both companies, if finalized, the deal would mark the
biggest-ever attraction of foreign investment by a domestic company through an equity
sell-off, sources said.
Currently, a combined 14.5 percent of SKT's shares including a 7.21 percent stake
held by SK Corp. and a 7.29 percent by SK Global are being deposited at Signum IX,
an investment broker based in Singapore.
After completing the deal for a strategic alliance, the two companies plan to set up
another partnership for SKT's 3G service based on the W-CDMA (wide code division
multiple access) standard and carry out various business activities in Asia.
Meanwhile, last month, Korea Telecom (KT), the second largest domestic shareholder
of SKT, asked SKT to include part of the stake held by KT in the sell-off but the
request was reportedly rejected.
(hsshine@koreaherald.co.kr)
2001.04.12
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