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Technology Stocks : Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCW, PCWKF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bud Smith who wrote (632)	3/9/2000 11:25:00 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4541

Bud, Your Welcome. Here is the article & the quote - it started trading today - up 534% Don't believe the otcbb foreign hbrrf quotes -- it showed $0.16 right now 3/9/00 @ 11:18 p.m. est. quote.e-finet.com Friday, March 10, 2000 Hutchison flexes its e-muscle BEN KWOK -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hutchison Whampoa will join forces with Nasdaq-listed electronic-commerce company Internet Capital Group (ICG) to control Harbour Ring International Holdings and create a new business-to-business platform in Asia. In another alliance, Hutchison and ICG will form a procurement e-commerce joint venture with Cheung Kong (Holdings) and possibly HSBC Holdings. "We are putting all the muscle to capture . . . opportunities in Asia," said Canning Fok Kin-ning, group managing director of Hutchison Whampoa. Under the agreement, ICG will pay $909.5 million to secure a controlling interest in Harbour Ring International Holdings, to be renamed ICG AsiaWorks. Harbour Ring will issue about 3.75 billion new shares, representing approximately 68.2 per cent of the existing share capital. At an issue price of 30 cents, which represent a discount of almost 76 per cent to the company's closing price of $1.23 before suspension, Harbour Ring could raise about $1.1 billion in fresh capital. ICG will end up holding 3.02 billion shares, or 54.9 per cent of the enlarged shareholding. Hutchison will hold 823 million shares, or 15 per cent, and the Li Ka-shing Foundation, the Hutchison chairman's charity fund, will pay $82 million to obtain 5 per cent. A total of 1.09 billion warrants will be issued to the three shareholders at 30 cents, exercisable within three years. ICG is entitled to 803 million warrants, which will take its investment in Harbour Ring to $1.15 billion. Harbour Ring shares will resume trading this morning. "We are going to make 10 to 20 acquisitions in the region in the next 12 months," ICG managing director Kenneth Fox said, adding that the project would focus on start-ups and that the investment approach would be "a partnership, rather than a takeover". "We'll continue our successful business models and build the network in Asia," he said. In the United States, ICG has formed 55 partnerships involving corporates such as Compaq, AT&T, and General Electric. Analysts compared ICG with CMGI, the Nasdaq-listed company that swapped shares with Pacific Century CyberWorks, as both US companies focused on the business-to-business market and invested in high-technology start-ups. As of Wednesday, ICG had a market capitalisation of $36 billion, compared with CMGI's $38 billion. Meanwhile, Hutchison's procurement joint venture with ICG will facilitate on-line trading of industrial products. Hutchison, together with parent Cheung Kong, will own 65 per cent of the venture and ICG the remaining 35 per cent. Hutchison and Cheung Kong will divide their stake 60-40 between themselves, but will reserve a stake of 20 per cent for corporate partners to be announced soon. The two companies owned by Mr Li would end up holding 50 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively, according to Mr Fok. It is understood that HSBC will be invited to take a stake in the entity. Cheung Kong and Hutchison have already formed an e-commerce alliance with HSBC and Hang Seng Bank. That alliance, iBusinessCorporation.com, provides business-to-business solutions to corporates. Questions have been raised as to how Hutchison can divide business-to-business initiatives among different partners and businesses whose operations range from container operations to supermarkets. Mr Fok said each alliance had a clear goal and he saw no conflict among the different businesses. "We are in the new economy and we have to move in real fast," he said. Analysts predicted that the two new alliances would have deeper implications for Hutchison than the profit number the conglomerate can come up with in the short term. scmp.com