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Technology Stocks : PCW - Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (88)	1/15/2001 11:35:09 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2248

BUSINESS: Hutchison in hunt as British firm cashes out Australian mobile asset Investment bank ABN Amro sees Hutchison Whampoa joining a group of telecommunications giants bidding for the mobile-telephone assets of Australia's Cable & Wireless Optus. If successful, the bid would be the second Cable & Wireless (C&W) asset acquired by companies controlled by the Li family as the British company cashes out its investments in Asia. Hutchison Whampoa is controlled by Li Ka-shing. Last February, Pacific Century CyberWorks - controlled by son Richard Li Tzar-kai - sealed a US$12 billion deal which enabled the takeover of Cable & Wireless HKT. ABN Amro said Hutchison and a major global partner might bid between A$10 billion (about HK$43.66 billion) and A$11 billion for Optus. Although the identity of the joint-bid partners was not known, analysts said Japan's NTT DoCoMo, which last week confirmed an interests in the Australian mobile operator, could again team up with Hutchison. DoCoMo has 19 per cent in Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong and 20 per cent of Hutchison's third generation network in Britain. Hutchison is said to be considering selling its 58 per cent in Hutchison Telecom Australia to fund the bid, which will have to top those from Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone Group and Singapore Telecommunications. ABN quoted Hutchison finance director Frank Sixt as saying it was clear Hutchison Whampoa was a seller of second-generation mobile assets. Telecom Corp of New Zealand, one of the bidders for Optus, was said to be also interested in Hutchison Telecom Australia. Analysts are sceptical of the rationale behind Hutchison wanting to sell down its Australian telecoms subsidiary, particularly after the group injected A$340 million into it last year. More attractive would be merging both operations into the second-largest mobile player. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- asia.dailynews.yahoo.com