China Tower aims to raise as much as USD 8.7 billion in its Hong Kong initial public offering. The world’s largest telecom tower operator is offering 43.1 billion shares at HKD 1.26-1.58 each, according to terms of the offering seen by Bloomberg. Hillhouse Capital and a unit of Alibaba Group are among the 10 firms that agreed to buy about USD 1.4 billion of shares as cornerstone investors.
This is expected to be the world’s biggest IPO in almost four years, since Alibaba listed in the US. China Tower was formed by combining tower assets of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom in 2015 as part of a broader plan to reform China's mobile industry.
China Tower has started taking investor orders, and pricing of the IPO is expected on 01 August. Shares are expected to begin trading 08 August.
Hillhouse funds agreed to invest USD 400 million, Taobao China Holding has committed to buy about USD 100 million of shares in the IPO, and Och-Ziff Capital Management will invest USD 300 million. Other cornerstone investors include affiliates of China National Petroleum,, SAIC Motor and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China., according to the terms.
