China Unicom kicks off roadshows for IPO HONG KONG: China Unicom Ltd., China's second largest telecommunications company, kicked off its global marketing campaign on Monday for a $4-5 billion initial public offering, a source close to the deal said. The issue could be the largest IPO ever launched by a mainland Chinese company. ``An international roadshow will start on May 29. Dealings in the shares are expected to start on June 21 in New York and on June 22 in Hong Kong,'' the source said. ``The company and sponsor are marketing the issue to underwriters and potential investors, mainly funds,'' the source said. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is the sponsor of the deal. Potential investors in the United States will have to wait until the presentation there for details about the issue. ``The company will come up with a price range during the roadshow,'' the source said. He said a dispute between Unicom's parent, China United Telecommunications Corp, and U.S. based Lark Telecom Services Co Ltd. over a paging joint venture contract probably would not affect Unicom's dual listing plan in Hong Kong and New York. The initial public offering would represent about 25 percent of China Unicom, which had shareholder equity of $967 million and long-term debts of about 12 billion yuan at the end of 1999, he said. The company reported a net profit of 570 million yuan in 1999 and expects to remain profitable this year despite a 1.6 billion yuan provision for winding up mobile phone contracts with foreign companies. Final pricing of the share would be fixed on June 16 and applications for the Hong Kong public portion would run from June 13-16, he added. China's largest telecoms operator, China Telecom (Hong Kong) Ltd., raised the equivalent of $4.2 billion in its IPO in 1997. $1-8.27 yuan.(Reuters)
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