China Unicom (Hong Kong Ltd, 中國聯通) is to raise as much as HK$88.1 billion (US$11.3 billion) by selling new shares to its parent as part of a government-led ownership overhaul of the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier.
Unicom plans to sell as many as 6.65 billion new shares to unlisted China Unicom (BVI) Ltd at HK$13.24 apiece, or 10 percent higher than the stock’s last closing price, according to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange late on Tuesday.
The deal is subject to shareholder approvals, it said.
The funds, which are to be invested into upgrading Unicom’s mobile network, would come after the US$11.7 billion share sale announced earlier this week by Unicom’s parent, which drew investors such as Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) as part of a Chinese government push to draw private capital into its state-owned enterprises.
Unicom was among six state-owned enterprises picked by China’s economic planner last year for a pilot program in mixed ownership — China’s preferred term for such private investments.
Separately, VIPKid, an online education company that matches Chinese students with North American teachers, raised US$200 million as it expands into new markets and broadens its academic offerings.
Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and Sequoia Capital China (紅杉資本) are investing in the Beijing-based company. Its existing backers include Sinovation Ventures (創新工場) and Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s (馬雲) Yunfeng Capital (雲峰基金).
The start-up’s valuation is now more than US$1.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private details.
VIPKid has seen explosive growth as Chinese parents seek out high-quality education for their children, particularly in English. The four-year-old start-up has expanded to more than 20,000 teachers and 200,000 students.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
AI: Softbank’s stake increases in Nvidia and TSMC reflect Masayoshi Son’s effort to gain a foothold in key nodes of the AI value chain, from chip design to data infrastructure Softbank Group Corp is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the latest reflection of founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence (AI). The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, regulatory filings showed. It bought about US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, they showed. Softbank’s signature Vision Fund has also monetized almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of this year,
RSS