Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) is studying the possibility of investing in the Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT), a state-run telecommunication company in Thailand, according to CHT chairman Tan Hochen.
February 24 report of the Chinese-language Commercial Times said that Thailand’s Ministry of Finance, the sole shareholder in TOT, plans to release a 30% stake of its holding in TOT to general investors in Thailand, and foreign institutional investors as well, in May of this year.
CHT may take a stake in TOT, if CHT is qualified to participate in the bidding, and the price of TOT shares is competitive, Hochen said.
CHT started to develop its business contact with TOT last year, by assisting the Thailand company with the establishment of an ADSL infrastructure network in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the Commercial Times said
Regarding a request by Taiwan Mobile, a major shareholder of CHT, to sell its holdings of 200 million shares in CHT through the issue of an American depositary receipt (ADR), CHT said that the planned ADR issue has to be approved by Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC).
Since foreign investors as a whole have been holding a 39.66% stake in CHT, close to the government’s current ceiling of 40%, and because CHT is now undertaking a stock buy-back plan, the MOTC is unlikely to approve the ADR issue at this time, Hochen stated.
Article translated by Steve Shen and edited by Chris Hall
