Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), the nation’s third-biggest telecom carrier, said its board had approved a public tender offer for shares of its fixed-line subsidiary, according to a stock exchange filing issued on Friday.
Far EasTone said it would offer NT$10.93 (US$0.34) per share to buy the 1.9 billion shares, or a 73.26 percent stake, of New Century InfoComm Tech Co (NCIC, 新世紀資通), via another wholly owned subsidiary, the filing showed.
The Taipei-based company, which currently owns 695 million shares, or a 26.74 percent stake, of NCIC, would pay a total of NT$20.81 billion to acquire the remaining NCIC shares through this tender offer, it said.
The tender offer will begin tomorrow and continue through August 16, with a maximum 30-day extension, the company said.
Far EasTone’s move to acquire its fixed-line subsidiary did not surprise the market. In July last year, the company’s vice chairman Jan Nilsson said Far EasTone planned to merge its fixed-line and mobile businesses sometime this year, as the firm aimed to increase revenues and improve cost efficiency to better compete with rivals Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大).
“The business cooperation between the group’s mobile and fixed-line networks will offer more complete telecom services to consumers, while helping achieve the long-term synergy in [our] operating cost,” Far EasTone said in the filing on Friday.
Hours after Far EasTone’s announcement, Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), the nation’s largest food manufacturer, said in separate stock exchange filings that its two subsidiaries sold 207.95 million NCIC shares at NT$10.93 each on the open market on Friday, for a total of NT$190.12 million.
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