李嘉诚购买电信盈科股份受挫

henry · 发表于 2006-12-2 00:09:58

<H1 class=articleTitle style="MARGIN: 0px">互联网时代英雄, 由于看错了方向, 落得今天的下场. 不过李泽楷还是很有骨气. </H1>
<H1 class=articleTitle style="MARGIN: 0px"> </H1>
<H1 class=articleTitle style="MARGIN: 0px">Li Ka-shing Fails to Buy Son's Shares in PCCW</H1>
<DIV style="

ADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT: bold 12px times new roman, times, serif; PADDING-TOP: 12px">By KATE LINEBAUGH and VLADIMIR GUEVARRA November 30, 2006 10:56 a.m. </DIV>
<

class=times>Richard Li's job just got a lot harder.
<

class=times>For the past five months, the son of Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing, had been planning to sell a 23% stake in <A class=times onmouseover="window.status=(' Quotes & Research for PCW');return true" onmouseout="window.status=('');return true" href="http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=pcw">PCCW</A> Ltd., Hong Kong's biggest fixed-line phone company, owned by a Singapore-listed concern he controls. Richard Li, the chairman of PCCW, was looking for a fresh enterprise six years after he bought the Hong Kong phone company.
Yesterday, the Singapore company's minority shareholders rejected a $1.2 billion offer to sell their PCCW stake to a consortium including <A class=times onmouseover="window.status=(' Quotes & Research for TEF');return true" onmouseout="window.status=('');return true" href="http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=tef">Telefonica</A> SA of Spain and two charitable foundations run by the elder Mr. Li.
"I remain as committed as ever to PCCW," Mr. Li said in a statement released late last night. "I intend to remain a major shareholder in the company." Mr. Li said he believes the company has "strong fundamentals and exciting prospects." PCCW said Mr. Li will continue as chairman.
But while in one sense Mr. Li is right back where he started, the challenge ahead in leading the company is now greater. The deal that failed yesterday had itself been put together hurriedly to extricate Mr. Li from a brewing transaction to sell PCCW's core assets to a foreign equity investor for about $7 billion. That deal foundered on the objections of PCCW's biggest Chinese shareholder, state-controlled China Network Communications Group Corp., which spoke out against any sale of the company or its assets to foreign investors.
China Netcom's differences with Mr. Li could limit PCCW's expansion prospects in one of the world's biggest telecommunications markets. At the same time, the embarrassing end of the $7 billion talks damaged Mr. Li's reputation as deal maker, possibly complicating any effort to find a new buyer.
Bankers and private-equity investors yesterday were already considering whether yet another deal was possible. Many think there needs to be a cooling-off period.
Yet yesterday's outcome is the one Mr. Li last week told a local newspaper that he wanted. He didn't like the fact that his father was one of the buyers. It is the outcome three-quarters of the more than 140 shareholders who crammed into a meeting room at the Raffles Town Club in Singapore wanted. They saw little benefit from the transaction trickling into their pockets.
That outcome may inhibit growth at PCCW, a company whose shares have lost more than 90% from their peak and whose earnings growth is already limited by a market of only seven million people, analysts say. They say the stock is expected to fall when it resumes trading.
"It's a company that could have moved on," says Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Wendy Liu, "but that has been stalled."
The first chance to move on came in June, when PCCW received two offers to buy the company's main assets from Australia's Macquarie Bank and U.S. private-equity firm Texas Pacific Group. Then, when China Netcom objected, Mr. Li agreed to sell the 23% stake owned by Pacific Century Regional Development Ltd. of Singapore to former Citigroup banker Francis Leung. Mr. Leung had six months to find partners to back his $1.2 billion offer. Three weeks ago, he announced his partners -- Telefonica and, indirectly, Mr. Li's father.
Because Telefonica already has a relationship with China Netcom, owning 5% of its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, the consortium was seen as setting the stage for greater expansion opportunities in China for PCCW, that had thus far been elusive. That could have opened up new revenue streams for the company which may now be more difficult for it to pursue under Mr. Li.
In addition, Mr. Li's chairmanship could face scrutiny in Hong Kong's legislature, where some lawmakers have said Mr. Li may be in violation of media cross-ownership laws, since PCCW has a pay-television business and Mr. Li recently took control of the Hong Kong Chinese-language newspaper Economic Journal.
Mr. Leung said the vote marked the end of his consortium's attempt to buy the stake and that he "respected" the decision. The Li Ka-shing Foundation said in a statement that the deal's fate was in the "normal course of business" and that it has "a number of other investment projects." China Netcom had no comment on the vote, from which Mr. Li was barred because of his father's involvement.
When Mr. Li bought PCCW in 2000, at the height of the Internet boom, he had big plans for the company. These were soon deflated by the sector's bust, and Mr. Li had to focus on debt repayments and streamlining existing businesses more than on developing new areas of growth. The stock suffered.
The company's most promising new business has been its broadband pay-TV service, which delivers about 100 TV channels to more than 550,000 households, more than any other phone company in the world. That business is not yet profitable. In a research note after the company posted its first-half results, Morgan Stanley said the profitability for that business was "uncertain at best."
But shareholders of Pacific Century see PCCW's prospects differently.
"PCCW has a very, very bright future," said shareholder James Wong at the meeting before the vote. "We have to stand united against the motion." In a standing-room-only meeting room, shareholders cheered and applauded at any statement made against the deal.
They voiced their disappointment at the lack of incentives, such as a special dividend, for them to approve the transaction. The company said the proceeds would be used for debt payments, future investments, acquisition opportunities and working capital. Pacific Century Managing Director Peter Allen told the shareholders' meeting that the company "hasn't decided on any distributions to shareholders."
"In simple terms, there's nothing for us. Our answer is no," said shareholder Lui Chee Meng, to loud applause.
The rejection came even though the offer valued PCCW at 6 Hong Kong dollars a share, a 19% premium to the last-traded price of HK$5.05. The shares haven't traded above the offer price in more than two years.
PCCW Chief Financial Officer Alex Arena told reporters that now the company "can move on with more certainty." He added that PCCW's relationship with China Netcom would remain "constructive" and said: "We have areas of common ground."

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