China Telecom announced plans to seek a second listing on the Shanghai stock market, alongside its Hong Kong listing. The company plans to sell nearly 12.1 billion shares in the Shanghai debut, equal to 13 percent of its outstanding shares.
The listing remains subject to shareholder approval at a meeting planned for 09 April. The offering may be increased with an over-allotment option to up to 15 percent of outstanding shares.
China Telecom said it will use the proceeds from the share sale to take advantage of new opportunities for growth in digital transformation services. The share sale was announced shortly after its annual results, which included an unchanged dividend of CNY 0.125 per share. Capital expenditure was CNY 84.8 billion and free cash flow CNY 14.3 billion in 2020.
Revenues in 2020 rose 4.7 percent to CNY 393.6 billion, and EBITDA increased 1.4 percent to CNY 118.9 billion. Mobile service revenue was up 3.5 percent to CNY 181.7 billion, and wireline revenues rose 5.5 percent to CNY 192.1 billion. The company's net profit increased 1.6 percent to CNY 20.9 billion.
Customer growth was strongest in the 5G market, where China Telecom grew from less than 5 million 5G subscribers at the start of the year to 86.5 million at the end of 2020. The total mobile customer base grew by 15.45 million over the year to 351.02 million, good for a 22 percent market share.
Fixed broadband customers increased by 5.4 million during the year to 158.53 million, and the number of IPTV subscribers rose by 3.3 million to 115.9 million.
