The government plans to sell up to 500 million shares -- about 5 percent of its stake -- in Chunghwa Telecom Co (
The ministry, which owns 82 percent of the company will soon submit an application to the Securities and Futures Commission for the sale, said Tony Teng (
The exact amount of shares for the domestic sale, which will take place after trading hours, has yet to be decided, said Teng.
"We will apply for selling this amount of shares, which will be a slightly over 5 percent," he said. "But we may sell less than that in the end, depending on market conditions."
The offering will last for several sessions and may continue into early March, he said. The floor price will vary from day to day, Teng added.
Details of the offering will be announced two to three days before it starts, he said.
Teng also said he isn't worried about the impact of a potential war with Iraq on the sale.
"Usually revenue of phone companies, unlike technology firms, will rise as phone traffic increases when war breaks out, as history tells us," he said. "That is why I think a war should work to the share sale's favor instead."
The government plans to privatize Chunghwa Telecom by the end of the year -- which means it will cut its holdings to less than 50 percent -- though it might remain a significant shareholder.
In December, the government sold a 13.5-percent stake in the company. One of the buyers was Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大).
Chunghwa Telecom posted a net profit of US$43.29 billion last year, up 16.2 percent from a year earlier due to cost cutting.
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