Pacific Century Cyberworks Raises $900m for Investments

Computergram International, Oct 29, 1999

Hong Kong's would-be regional internet giant Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd still has a 'war chest' of more than $900m to spend on expansion despite having already funded numerous acquisitions, according to Pacific Century Group chairman Richard Li. Li said CyberWorks had raised $900m in cash from the stock market during the past four months in addition to existing cash-in-hand and funds raised through a series of share placements which had been used to fund acquisitions to date. These have included US-based SoftNet System for $130m and 11 small IT firms for a total of $60m.

Li said CyberWorks is now studying about 60 potential investment projects, and is setting aside $200m for its venture capital arm to invest in IT start-ups in Asia. It will also set aside about $400m from its cash on hand to fund the business plan of its Pacific Convergence Corp (PCC) subsidiary. PCC is a wholly-owned satellite broadband internet company which aims to bring the internet to tens of millions of Asian homes via cable TV. Whatever is left over will be used working capital at CyberWorks and for investment in equities, he said.