Reuters
reports:
The Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners are among the private equity firms pursuing a stake in a company to be spun-out from PCCW, the Hong Kong phone company controlled by billionaire Richard Li.
Other interested parties could include TPG Capital and Macquarie Bank Ltd. In 2006, the two firms competed to buy the majority of PCCW's assets with offers reaching around $5 billion before Li, under pressure to keep the company in Chinese hands, opted to sell to nobody.
In the current auction, PCCW is spinning out its telecom services, media and IT services into a new entity, HKT Group Holdings, and will then divest a 45% stake to third parties. The stake is expected to command more $3 billion in equity and $8 with the debt it plans to issue. Although a lack of access to debt financing has made it harder for private equity bidders to get into auctions in the U.S. and Europe, buyout shops face significantly less headwind in Asia where the debt markets have not seized up. - George White
See Reuters story
See story on the sale on TheDeal.com
See story of PE auctions on TheDeal.com
See story on 2006 PCCW auction on TheDeal.com
