Tencent,Baidu, JD.com and Alibaba Group are among 14 strategic investors due toparticipate in a CNY78 billion ($11.7 billion) China Unicom share sale, theoperator announced.
Thecompanies will purchase 10.9 billion shares, which equates to a 35 per centstake in state-owned China United Network Communications (referred to as UnicomA Share Company) at a price of CNY6.80 per share. Employees will also have theopportunity to purchase 850 million shares at a discounted price.
ChinaUnicom’s announcement draws a line under recent speculation the operator was seekinginvestors as part of a broadergovernment programme to reform ownership structures and rejuvenate statebehemoths with private capital.
Itmarks the biggest deal in recent years under Beijing’s “mixed-ownership”reforms.
Ina statement, the operator said the funds will be used to upgrade 4Gcapabilities, develop 5G related technologies, launch 5G trial programmes and“develop innovative businesses” to enhance “the core competiveness of Unicom AShare Company and speed up its strategic transformation.”
ChinaUnicom said the business conducted by the leading internet companies, alongwith other investors including Didi Chuxing and Suning Commerce Group,“are highly correlated to, and complementary with” its principal businesses.
Anotherfactor is the investors have “strong fundamentals” which will create “a powerfulalliance”, it stated.
MainlandChina’s second largest mobile operator said key areas for cooperation includebig data, payment and internet finance, IoT, content aggregation and cloudcomputing.
Earlierin the week trading of the Chinese operator’s shares on the Hong Kong StockExchange was halted “pending the release of an announcement containing insideinformation”.
Lastweek the operator said the initial stages of establishing e-commerceoperating centres with Tencent and Alibaba had nothing to do with the government’s mixed-ownership reforms.
Alongwith this announcement, the operator also confirmed it saw a 70 per cent jumpin first-half profit and a 1.5 percent dip in revenue, as forecast earlier in theweek.
(Source： the Mobile World Live)
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