China Mobile Ltd (中國移動通信), the world’s biggest wireless carrier by users, is seeking to list its shares domestically to take advantage of an easing regulatory environment, chairman Wang Jianzhou (王建宙) said.
“We have been encouraged by recent regulatory developments,” Wang told reporters yesterday at China Mobile’s shareholder meeting in Hong Kong. The company wants a listing in China “as soon as possible,” he said.
China Mobile, the third-biggest stock listed in Hong Kong, rose 2.6 percent to close at HK$74.15, compared with a 3.1 percent gain on the Hang Seng Index. The company’s market value of HK$1.49 trillion (US$192 billion) ranks behind only PetroChina Co (中石油) and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd (中國工商銀行) among stocks listed in the city.
China Mobile prefers to offer Chinese depositary receipts in China, rather than so-called A-shares, in order to minimize compliance work for the listing, Wang said. The phone carrier will wait for regulators to issue rules before filing a listing application, he said.
“As the proposed listing involves only depositary receipts, there won’t be a dilution on earnings per share,” said Kevin Tam (譚思晉), who rates China Mobile shares “accumulate” at Everbright Securities (光大證券) in Hong Kong.
China Mobile now has “a good opportunity” to buy overseas phone carriers after prices declined, making assets “inexpensive,” Wang said. The Chinese company will be “rational” in acquisitions, he said.
The company is boosting its search for overseas investments as the economic slowdown and rising domestic competition slowed first-quarter profit growth to the weakest in five years.
First-quarter net income gained 5.2 percent to 25.2 billion yuan (US$3.7 billion), the slowest since 2004, China Mobile reported last month. The company is increasing handset subsidies and targeting lower-spending customers in rural areas to maintain its lead over smaller rivals China Telecom Corp (中國電信) and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd (中國聯通).
China Mobile last month announced a plan to buy a 12 percent stake in Taiwan’s Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信). In 2006, China Mobile bought China Resources Peoples Telephone Co (華潤萬眾) in Hong Kong.
The proposed Far EasTone acquisition faces regulatory obstacles as Taiwan’s telecommunications sector isn’t open to Chinese investors. Still, Wang said China Mobile is “optimistic” the transaction will be completed.
Under the plan, China Mobile will subscribe to new Far EasTone shares equivalent to a 12 percent stake. Wang said China Mobile doesn’t intend to purchase Far EasTone shares on the open market.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS