Richard Li boosts CyberWorks stake
Saturday, July 28, 2001
BEN KWOK
Pacific Century CyberWorks chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai has boosted his company stake. Mr Li's investment unit, Pacific Century Regional Developments (PCRD), said it bought 11.9 million shares in CyberWorks between Monday and Thursday, according to a disclosure on Friday to the Singapore Stock Exchange.
PCRD bought the shares at between HK$1.98 and HK$2.01.
After the deal, PCRD will raise its stake in CyberWorks to 33.68 per cent from 33.63 per cent. PCRD is estimated to have spent about HK$24 million on the purchase.
It has been eight months since Mr Li last stepped into the market. In November last year, Mr Li and PCRD paid US$911 million to underwrite a portion of convertible bonds and a rights issue by CyberWorks.
In the same exercise, PCRD paid US$312 million for the rights to CyberWorks shares at HK$6.50 each, or a 328 per cent premium compared with yesterday's closing price of HK$1.98.
CyberWorks has fallen 60.8 per cent since January and 87.1 per cent since it took over HKT in August last year. Analysts generally interpreted that Mr Li was trying to call the bottom of the share price.
"I will not read too much into it in terms of the amount of the investment and more importantly, in terms of his stock-buying track record," said Jonathan Iu, an analyst at SG Securities. "When the counter will hit bottom is still anybody's guess."
Mr Li's CyberWorks buy also followed an agreement this week to postpone the redemption of 61.58 million preference shares. Mr Li had agreed to defer the redemption for six months.
The deferral might be extended for another six months, but Mr Li would still be paid a fixed cumulative preference dividend of 2 per cent per year.
A CyberWorks spokesman declined to comment on whether the majority shareholders would buy more shares. CyberWorks is due to announce interim results in mid-September, meaning Mr Li could have another two weeks to buy shares before the one-month blackout period.
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