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China Mobile said late Monday in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where it also trades, that it had received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to move ahead with the share sale.
It’s not clear yet how much money China Mobile will raise. It said in the filing that it needs to conduct “preliminary price consultations” this week.
But the total — which the company wants to use to help it ramp up its 5G capabilities, among other things — could be in the billions of dollars.
In a statement on Tuesday, the company said it plans to issue 845.7 million shares. Based on the stock’s closing price in Hong Kong on Monday, that would place the raise at 39.16 billion yuan ($5 billion).
In August, China Mobile filed a preliminary prospectus outlining an intent to raise 560 billion yuan ($8.8 billion) for 5G, cloud infrastructure and smart home projects.
China Telecom, the country’s second largest telecom firm, also trades in Hong Kong and listed in Shanghai in August. Its $7.3 billion raise was one of the world’s largest this year. Rival China Unicom already trades in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
China Mobile Chairman Yang Jie said in August that a listing in mainland China would “effectively promote the development of the company” and let its customers “share the benefits of the company’s growth and development.”
“Because our customer market is basically in China, if we come back, the capital market and the customer market will completely match,” he said in an earnings call at the time.
China Mobile is crucial to China’s high-tech ambitions to win the global race in 5G. The country wants to triple the number of…
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Source : cnn
