Now that most of the upfront investment has been made, a case can be made for Mercury Communications Ltd potentially being as much of an unappreciated asset in the Cable & Wireless Plc portfolio as was Vodafone at Racal Electronics Plc before the latter announced plans to float off a minority – and at current prices, by buying Cable & Wireless shares, investors can get a stake in Mercury for less than nothing: the Daily Telegraph points out that Hong Kong Telephone is presently valued at UKP4,700m on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and that values Cables’ holding in the company at UKP3,700m – whereas at Wednesday’s closing price of 349 pence the whole of Cable & Wireless is valued in London at only UKP3,200m.
