A frisson of excitement was generated in Cable & Wireless Plc’s shares this week at the prospect that maiden figures due out today, Friday, from the new Hong Kong Telecommunications Ltd, created by the merger of Hong Kong Telephone and the interests of Cable & Wireless in the Crown Colony, will be better than forecast. The company had been projecting the equivalent of $370m, most analysts had been looking for $375m to $383m, but Hatim Hoosenally of Scrimgeour Vickers is letting it be known that he wouldn’t be surprised to see something conisderably better – perhaps as much as $448m – that’s 3.5 billion Hong Kong dollars. He reckons that while the company’s earnings flow from its regulated telephone business has been steady, the unregulated businesses have been doing considerably better. The company is also expected to dress up its figures to look as fancy as possible ahead of the planned flotation of 10% to 11% of the equity from the government’s remaining holding, and from the 80% currently held by Cable & Wireless. That flotation is now pencilled in for this September.
