Chunghwa Telecom Co (
Goldman Sachs, UBS AG and Morgan Stanley won the bid to sell a major stake owned by the government to overseas investors, Chunghwa Telecom said in a statement released yesterday.
coordinator
Goldman Sachs will be the coordinator for the issuance of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) equal to a maximum of about 1.35 billion common shares, or around 14 percent, of Chunghwa Telecom, the company said last week.
The result came five days earlier than the schedule originally set for Friday, which would pave the way for the government's plan to privatize Chunghwa Telecom as legislators are set to review a bill regulating the privatization of state-owned companies this week.
The passage of the draft bill would make the ADR issuance possible in June.
The ADR issuance will make up a part of the government's broader plan to sell a total of 17 percent of its holdings in Chunghwa Telecom to lower its stake to below 50 percent, the threshold for state-run companies to qualify as privatized.
other offerings
Other share offerings will include auctioning a 2-percent stake on the home market at a discount and offering an unspecified amount to its employees, according to the company.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications still holds a controlling 65-percent share in Chunghwa Telecom after the last six share sales at home and abroad.
The latest one was in 2003, in which Goldman Sachs and UBS assisted the phone company in an initial public offering of a 14-percent stake on the US stock market.
Chunghwa Telecom's ADR slid 0.44 percent to US$20.29 last Friday, which was equivalent to NT$63.86 a common share. That represents a 6.08 percent premier, compared to the closing price of NT$60.2, down 1.31 percent, on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Each Chunghwa Telecom ADR equals 10 common shares.
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