Record trade surplus   (China Daily)  Updated: 2006-07-17 11:33  Bidding war ends
  The one-month bidding war surrounding Hong Kong's 
largest phone operator came to an end last Monday after its controlling 
shareholder Richard Li sold a 23-per-cent stake to a high-profile local 
banker.
  The mega-deal, worth HK$9.16 billion (US$1.17 billion), valued 
PCCW at HK$6 (77 US cents) per share, an 8 per cent premium to its closing price 
of HK$5.55 (71 US cents) on July 7.
  Li retains a 3 per cent stake in the 
firm, in which China Netcom Group Corp, the mainland's second-largest fixed-line 
operator, spent US$1 billion last year for a 20-per-cent stake.
  Francis 
Leung, who stepped down this year as chairman of Citigroup's Asia investment 
banking arm, beat two overseas rivals - Australia's Macquarie Bank and the Asian 
arm of US buyout firm Texas Pacific Group.
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