China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. will raise as much as HK$88.1 billion ($11.3 billion) by selling new shares to its parent as part of a government-led ownership overhaul of the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier.
Unicom plans to sell as many as 6.65 billion new shares to unlisted China Unicom (BVI) Ltd. at HK$13.24 apiece, or 10 percent higher than the stock’s last closing price, according to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange late Tuesday. The deal is subject to shareholder approvals, it said.
The funds, which will be invested into upgrading Unicom’s mobile network, would come after the $11.7 billion share sale announced earlier this week by Unicom’s parent, which drew investors such as Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as part of a government push to draw private capital into its state-owned enterprises.
Unicom was among six state-owned enterprises picked by the nation’s economic planner last year for a pilot program in mixed ownership -- China’s preferred term for such private investments.
Unicom shares were halted from trading in Hong Kong on Wednesday because of a typhoon.
To contact the reporter on this story: Prudence Ho in Hong Kong at pho83@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net, Sam Nagarajan
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