China Telecom (Hong Kong) Ltd’s $1.65bn global share placement has been oversubscribed by about 20%, with the international bookbuild being closed after more than $2bn-worth of orders were received. The company’s $500m bond offering was also fully subscribed,
Investors were enthusiastic about the placement due to the huge growth potential of the ChinaÆs telecoms industry, a fund manager said. ôChina Telecom has exhibited strong growth in the past two years, and it is expected to grow faster in the next few years, he said. Due to the stronger-than-expected demand the placement price per share was expected to be in the region of HK$24 or $2 more than fund managers had predicted last week.
The Hong Kong-listed company, which operates three major provincial mobile phone networks in China, said earlier this month that it planned to raise $2.15bn in cash to finance part of its $6.4bn acquisition of three more provincial mobile networks.
