China Tower, the world’s largest mobile telecom tower company, has won approval in Hong Kong for an IPO that could mobilize up to $10 billion, Reuters reported.
China Tower could begin pre-marketing of the deal as soon as next week. Books could open as soon as July 9.
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi’s initial public offering will also be hitting the IPO market soon targeting up to $6.1 billion.
Timing of the IPO of China Tower will, however, depend somewhat on how well Xiaomi’s deal is received. Xiaomi is due to start trading on July 9.
Xiaomi’s deal is seen as a key test of market sentiment for what is expected to be a packed second-half of the year in terms of IPOs in Hong Kong.
The report said China Tower, formed by merging the mobile tower operations of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom in 2014, is looking to raise between $8 billion and $10 billion.
At the top end, the deal would value the company at $40 billion and would also mark the world’s largest IPO since Alibaba set a record in 2014 with its $25 billion New York deal.
The Beijing-based China Tower operated and managed 1.87 million sites for 2.69 million tenants as at the end of 2017.
China Mobile owned 38 percent of China Tower, Unicom owned 28.1 percent while China Telecom had 27.8 percent stake.
Profit of China Tower jumped 25-fold last year to 1.9 billion yuan or $287.2 million from 2016 net income of 76 million yuan, while the company reported a 2015 loss of 3.6 billion yuan, SCMP reported.
China Tower aims to improve its efficiency, promote green energy application and explore overseas market expansion opportunities, according to a copy of its listing prospectus filed in May.
China International Capital and Goldman Sachs are joint sponsors for the planned China Tower share sale.
