China Mobile expects to raise $8.8 billion on Shanghai debut
Shanghai, China, Jan 4 (EFE).- The state-owned China Mobile is targeting to raise about $8.8 billion during its debut at the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the network operator said.
The Shanghai debut comes after China Mobile was barred from listing at the New York Stock Exchange following the United States government’s blacklisting of the firm and other Chinese companies for their alleged military links.
The company Tuesday indicated, in a statement, that it would sell 845.7 million shares that could increase to almost 973 million if it exercised the over-allotment (greenshoe) option.
The price per share is 57.58 yuan ($9.06).
It means that the debut could fetch 56,000 million yuan ($8.8 million if the greenshoe option is exercised.
Otherwise, the company would be raising $7.7 million on the day of the listing.
In any case, China Mobile would surpass the biggest debut of the second-largest state operator, China Telecom, also excluded from Wall Street.
China Telecom went public in Shanghai in August when it fetched about $7.4 billion.
Most of the proceeds will go into the 5G network development, even as the company plans to spend on the ‘cloud’ resource infrastructure and the smartphones.
China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after the then-US government led by Donald Trump banned investment from companies related to the People’s Liberation Army.
A day after Trump departed from the White House, the three state-owned operators urged Wall Street to cancel their exclusion.
However, in May, the NYSE authorities rejected their appeals and upheld the exclusion.
Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, continued with the ban on the Chinese telecom majors. EFE
vec/ssk
