China Telecom Delays IPO

Communications Today, Nov 4, 2002

China Telecom delayed what would have been the world's third-largest initial public offering (IPO) due to insufficient investor demand. The government-owned company, which includes networks in three of China's richest provinces, had hoped to raise up to $3.68 billion in its IPO. In order to go ahead with the offering, the company will have to either slash the size of the deal, cut the price or offer a bigger dividend, industry sources say. China Telecom could relaunch the IPO some time later this week. This past week, China Telecom raised its long-distance connection charges for Hong Kong and Macau to at least 17 cents a minute. The Beijing-based company's prior rate for the charge was about 2 cents a minute.

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