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

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (358)	2/19/2001 11:53:45 AM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2248

C&W Says No Timetable Set on PCCW Share Sale (Update1) Feb 19, 2001 - 19:41:17 HKT Quamnet News Service Cable & Wireless Plc said it is in discussions with Pacific Century CyberWorks (0008) about selling its remaining 15 percent stake in PCCW after it is allowed to sell half of it with the expiry of a lock-up period last Saturday. "It is the intention of both C&W and PCCW that C&W¡¦s exit from this shareholding be achieved in an orderly manner. Both parties intend to cooperate in achieving such an outcome. No timetable has been set," C&W said in a statement. C&W, the second-largest shareholder of PCCW, will not immediately offload a 7.5 percent stake in the Hong Kong-listed communications company after the lock-up expired last week, according to sources familiar with the situation. It would rather wait for a better price for the shares, including considering ways other than a straight placement, sources said. C&W sold in September last year, almost immediately after a first lock-up period expired, all its allowed block of 4.9 percent stake in PCCW for HK$10.3 billion, leaving it a 15 percent stake in the company. At that time, it sold 1.04 billion shares at HK$9.88 each, or an 8 percent discount to PCCW's then market price, but PCCW shares had plunged by almost a fifth in the following days. PCCW shares ended Hong Kong trading today up 0.5 percent at HK$4.65. Craig Racine, head of Asian telecommunications and Internet research at ING Barings, recently estimated the fully diluted net asset value of Pacific Century CyberWorks (0008) at HK$4.56 a share. Rumors have circulated in the local stock market in the past month that Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, the father of PCCW Chairman Richard Li; France Telecom, Telecom Italia SpA and Alcatel SA may buy the PCCW shares to be sold by C&W. There were even rumors that C&W may swap its stake in PCCW for a 25 percent stake in the Internet Protocol backbone venture between PCCW and Telstra Corp. Yet, none of those rumors have so far been confirmed by the parties involved. The elder Li even denied that his flagship investment vehicles Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. (0001) and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (0013) will buy PCCW shares, citing competition in the local telecoms business between them. He left open whether he will make it a personal investment, though. quamnet.com