PCCW - Cable and Wireless opts for PCCW to buy HKT - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[investor_007]

Cable and Wireless opts for PCCW to buy HKT
By Alan Cane and James Harding in London and Rahul Jacob in Hong Kong - 28 Feb 2000
22:41GMT

Pacific Century Cyberworks, a 10-month old internet
start-up, on Monday night appeared to have won the
battle for Cable & Wireless HKT, Hong Kong`s dominant
telecommunications operator.

It is understood that Cable and Wireless, which holds 54
per cent of HKT`s shares, preferred PCCW`s bid over a
competing offer from Singapore Telecom.

The victory for PCCW, a company run by Richard Li, the
son of Hong Kong`s most powerful tycoon, Li Ka-shing, has come despite the
efforts of Rupert Murdoch to assist the SingTel bid.

Mr Murdoch`s News Corporation offered $1bn to buy about 4 per cent of SingTel
and add cash to the Singaporean telecoms operator`s bid for the Hong Kong
network. But the C&W board, meeting in London to decide on Asia`s largest
corporate contest, last night opted for PCCW.

Mr Li said on Monday night: "We are very excited . . . This will accelerate our roll-out
across Asia."

It is understood that PCCW had tabled a $38bn all-share offer and an alternative
$35bn cash-and-shares bid including an $11.3bn cash component and a $700m
dividend from HKT. The cash component of some $12bn is higher than the cash
component in an offer PCCW made to the C&W board on Sunday.

The SingTel bid is believed to be of about the same value, implying that the C&W
board preferred the PCCW`s growth prospects in the fast moving internet world to
the more conservative approach of the Singapore carrier.

While the C&W board, it is understood, agreed to the PCCW offer on Monday,
negotiations were continuing late into night to tie up details of the deal. The PCCW
bid will also have to be approved by the HKT`s board of directors.

SingTel, which believed it had secured a merger agreement with HKT until
PCCW`s intervention two weeks ago, had pulled out all the stops in the hotly
contested battle. News Corporation was pulled in over the weekend to add
muscle to the SingTel bid.

[polyte]

Jawoll, vielen Dank investor_007,
das ist ja mal ein netter Grund zufrieden ins Bett zu gehen.
polyte

Hier noch ein kleines Extra aus stockhouse.com:

Monday, February 28, 2000
CyberWorks, Bowman Capital ally for investment



Pacific Century CyberWorks, technology arm of Hong Kong-listed Pacific Century Group, announced its partnership with Silicon Valley-based investment management firm Bowman Capital to co-invest in selected growing, privately-held technology companies with growth potential in Asian markets.
Bowman Capital will be responsible for selecting the potential technology companies for investment, while PCCW will use its operational resources to help the selected companies in formulating and implementing their Asian business strategies.
Recently, Bowman and PCCW have made two joint investments in private technology companies: They have announced they will invest in Weave Innovations, the developer and operator of the StoryBox platform. PCCW will support the StoryBox platform to help Weave Innovations enter the Asian market. PCCW has also acquired a 12 per cent equity stake in the US-based application service provider (ASP) Magically.

[arbabi]

Gratulation !!!!

[Otiradi]

A dream comes true. Ich habe immer daran geglaubt und ich habe es auch begründet. Hier hat eine "Chinese family" gesiegt, wer daran gezweifelt hat, weiss nichts über die chinesische Menthalität. Super und Glückwunsch an alle, die die Hoch´s und Tief´s durchgehalten haben. Diese Aktie ist ein Hammer und wer jetzt noch daran zweifelt, dem ist nicht mehr zu helfen. Alle die schnell ein paar Mark verdienen wollen sollen es tun, sie werden irgendwann durch das Tal der Tränen gehen. Have a good night
Otiradi (mit OTI, Adcon, PCCW und KNM lebt es sich gut)

[investor_007]

ANALYSIS-PCCW <1186.HK> gains network, cash flow


By David Lawder

HONG KONG, Feb 29 (Reuters) - In merging with Cable & Wireless HKT, Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd <1186.HK> instantly gains a broadband
distribution network, technical expertise, cash flow and an overhang on its shares, analysts said on Tuesday.

The brash young Internet startup is offering a combination of cash and stock valued at US$35.9 billion or an alternative -- for braver investors -- of an all-stock
offer valued at HK$38.1 billion.

The deal, said to be Asia`s largest-ever corporate merger, will turn PCCW into a vertically integrated communications giant with a sophisticated fibre-optic network
covering 80 percent of Hong Kong and a growing portfolio of Internet content to fill it.

PCCW will also gain 3.3 million paying fixed line customers, 1 million mobile customers and nearly 500,000 Internet subscribers.

C&W HKT`s <0008.HK> revenues were HK$32.41 billion in its last fiscal year, versus PCCW`s HK$283.6 million, most of which came from property and
businesses it inherited from Tricom Holdings.

The broadband Internet service that PCCW`s Pacific Convergence Corp unit is developing, to be beamed from satellites to cable television networks throughout
Asia, is months away from commercial launch.

"Really, at this point, PCCW is just a concept. When they merge with HKT, they will get some real assets -- fixed-line, mobile and a broadband network," said
Kim Eng Securities telecom analyst Alfred Li.

FASTER ROLLOUT

PCCW said in a statement that the deal will allow a faster roll-out of its Internet content offerings to C&W HKT`s broadband-ready subscriber base.

"HKT provides immediate customers for our talent, services, additional distribution platforms and will accelerate PCCW`s roll-out throughout Asia," group
chairman and founder Richard Li said in a statement.

Before launching his quest to merge with Hong Kong`s biggest telecom provider, Li had built PCCW into one of Asia`s biggest Internet plays largely by using the
company`s soaring stock price to invest in other Internet startups.

Its venture capital arm, CyberWorks Ventures, has invested about US$550 million in Asian and Western companies that provide content and web applications,
ranging from Chinese Internet portal Sina.com to U.S. venture fund CMGI Inc <CMGI.O>.

Analysts said it was mainly C&W HKT`s local digital subscriber line network -- one of the few in the world that can deliver full video on demand -- that attracted
PCCW, which can use it as a laboratory to develop its services.

One analyst, who declined to be named, said one of the group`s main goals was to develop Mandarin and Hindi content for the world`s largest developing markets
-- China and India.

"It gives Richard Li the backbone, the platform from which to build," said Matthew McGarvey, an Internet analyst with International Data Corp in Hong Kong.

"Bandwidth in Asia-Pacific is a very hot commodity."

Another jewel was C&W HKT`s joint venture with News Corp`s <NCP.AX> Star TV, which is developing a new digital pay television service that will be
distributed over the Hong Kong network.

Li, who founded Star TV and sold it to News Corp in 1995, aimed to compete with his former company by creating a new satellite television channel, Network of
the World, which would be broadcast with embedded links to his Internet service.

News Corp withdrew US$1 billion in investment backing from SingTel after PCCW`s offer emerged victorious.

ASSET SALES SEEN

But the merged PCCW-HKT must still deal with the competitive pressures of Hong Kong`s fast deregulating telecoms market. C&W HKT said it expects another
year of earnings decline before a rebound in the fiscal year ending in March 2002.

To cope with this and reduce debt, Li may opt to sell some of HKT`s other assets, particularly its mobile unit, which lost significant market share.

A likely buyer is Hutchison Whampoa Ltd <0013.HK>, controlled by Li`s father, tycoon Li Ka-shing, which used aggressive price promotions to take the leading
mobile market position away from C&W HKT last year.

SHARE SALE OVERHANG

Another concern is the overhang created by a stake of up to 21 percent held by Cable & Wireless Plc <CW.L>. Cable and Wireless said it planned to sell four
percent of PCCW shares as soon as possible, but would hold the remainder for six months, selling no more than 50 percent in the following six months.

"I would expect there would be some short term selling pressure on PCCW shares," said Kim Eng`s Li, who is no relation to Richard. "If I were China Telecom, I
wouldn`t want to hold PCCW shares."

State-controlled China Telecom, which will hold up to 5 percent of the merged company, on Tuesday applied to operate its own international traffic gateway to
Hong Kong a move that would put it in direct competition with PCCW-HKT.

[investor_007]

LONDON, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Cable & Wireless Plc <CW.L> has made no decision on whether to keep its stake in Pacific Century CyberWorks
Ltd <1186.HK> for longer than a year following the sale of Cable & Wireless HKT <1186.HK>, C&W Chief Executive Graham Wallace said on
Tuesday.

He told journalists the company expected to receive a 15-16 percent stake in PCCW from the deal, to sell a four percent chunk immediately and to
swap $500 million worth of the shares for shares in U.S. Internet company CMGI Inc <CMGI.O>.

It would keep the remaining shares for at least six months and sell no more than 50 percent of them in the following six months. "Time will tell" if it
then sells the remainder, Wallace told a conference call.

"What we do with that holding we`ll decide over time," he said.

He said C&W was most likely to receive five billion pounds ($7.97 billion) cash from the deal after C&W HKT shareholders chose between various
options on offer.

The sale of four percent would earn it a further 1.5 billion pounds, he said.

($1=.6275 Pound)