Hutchison Whampoa (和記黃埔) of Hong Kong has renewed its interest in Global Crossing, the insolvent communications company, and is expected to submit an offer this week to buy it out of bankruptcy, people involved in the bidding process said Tuesday.
A bid from Hutchison, a conglomerate controlled by the billionaire investor Li Ka-shing (
Hutchison had submitted a preliminary US$750 million offer for Global Crossing in late January together with Singapore Technologies Telemedia, a company controlled by Singapore's government. It was not clear Tuesday night whether ST Telemedia would join Hutchison in its bid.
A spokesman for Hutchison declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Singapore Technologies could not be reached.
Hutchison is expected to join one or two other groups planning to submit offers for Global Crossing. Each bid is believed to value the company between US$1 billion to US$2 billion, with Hutchison's bid coming at the higher end of that range, people involved in the bidding process said.
The other groups believed to be interested in acquiring Global Crossing include One Equity Partners, the private equity unit of the Bank One Corp, and a venture between two Los Angeles investment firms, Gores Technology Group and Platinum Equity, these people said.
An auction to determine a winner was planned for yesterday at the offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a law firm working for Global Crossing.
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