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

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (305)	2/10/2001 9:38:35 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2248

Reach Chief Considers Linking With Partners February 9, 2001 Tech Center A WALL STREET JOURNAL News Roundup SYDNEY, Australia -- Newly created Reach Ltd. could take on one or more partners to attract bigger players as the global telecommunications market consolidates, the company's chairman said. The 50-50 partners in the Pan-Asian Internet backbone venture, Telstra Corp. of Australia and Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd. of Hong Kong, are open to ideas about potential alliances and funding, which might involve an initial public offering, said Reach Chairman Gerry Moriarty. 1Telstra and CyberWorks Launch Trio of Ventures "We see an outstanding opportunity to be part of that consolidation over time, and we will be able to pick the timing," Mr. Moriarty said on Thursday, the Bermuda-based company's first day of operation. "It's a nice position to be in when you are approached by other companies, and we see the opportunity for one or several partners." "We are talking about how they [potential partners] might participate in various ways," he said. Mr. Moriarty declined to say how many companies have approached him. A boom of undersea fiber cable construction is expected to increase the capacity of Asia's international Internet protocol capacity more than tenfold in the next 12 to 18 months, potentially flooding the market and creating uncertainty about just how profitable such operations will be. While Reach's network is widespread, including links to more than 14 countries, analysts say it lacks the giant-capacity cables linking Asia to Europe and North America that other telecommunication companies are building. An alliance with another participant in the undersea-cable game could plug that gap. Valued at up to 18 billion Australian dollars (US$9.9 billion) by some estimates, the company hasn't outlined a time frame for a possible stock market listing. Analysts say market sentiment toward undersea fiber networking plays is too poor for any IPO this year, especially given the global slump in telecommunication stocks. Mr. Moriarty dismissed concerns that the fortunes of a sister company -- a pan-Asian mobile telecommunications joint venture between Telstra and CyberWorks -- could have an impact on Reach's chances of going public. "These IPOs are separate, they are fully funded and stand alone. The only issue is that you probably wouldn't want to do the two together," he said, noting investment institutions probably wouldn't want to absorb two large share offerings at the same time. "The most sensible thing is to stagger these two IPOs because they aren't related in terms of timing." Telstra owns 60% of the mobile venture, which incorporates CyberWorks' cellular phone carrier in Hong Kong, the city's second-largest. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- URL for this Article: interactive.wsj.com Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) interactive.wsj.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printing, distribution, and use of this material is governed by your Subscription Agreement and copyright laws. For information about subscribing, go to wsj.com Used with permission of wsj.com