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China Mobile readies for mainland debut

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-12 08:20

Visitors pass by a China Mobile billboard at the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai on Nov 8, 2008. [Asianewsphoto]

China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest phone company by market value, has begun working on listing its shares in the domestic market, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Wang Jianzhou said.

The carrier hopes regulators will allow the listing soon, Wang said on Friday at the World Economic Forum meeting in Dalian. Authorities are working on rules that will facilitate listings of so-called "red-chip" companies, or overseas-incorporated Chinese firms, he said.

China Mobile, the third-biggest stock traded in Hong Kong, is stepping up efforts to offer its shares to investors in the world's fastest-growing major economy, where a $586 billion stimulus is helping to compensate a slump in export demand from the US and Europe. Chinese regulators are making preparations for greater international participation in its stock market, the second biggest in Asia.

Wang Jianzhou

"China Mobile doesn't need the money, it's more to comply with government policy," said Marvin Lo, who rates the stock "outperform" at Daiwa Securities Group in Hong Kong. "It will help to boost the sentiment."

The China Securities Regulatory Commission held an internal meeting in July to discuss setting up an international board on the Shanghai exchange on which overseas companies will trade for the first time, according to people with knowledge of the plans. Red-chip companies such as China Mobile and CNOOC would also be allowed to list in the A share market, according to the people.

HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank, has hired advisors for a possible listing in Shanghai, spokesman David Hall said last month. Lenovo Group Ltd, China's biggest personal-computer maker, "looks forward" to listing its stock domestically, Chairman Liu Chuanzhi said last month.

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In May, China Mobile's Wang said the carrier was waiting for changes in stock market regulations before filing a listing application. The company was seeking to list its shares "as soon as possible", Wang said.

China Mobile, whose shares debuted in Hong Kong's exchange in 1997, and CNOOC, China's biggest offshore oil explorer, are so-called "red-chip" companies that maintains most of their operations in China. They were incorporated overseas as part of government efforts in the 1990s to offer stock in the country's biggest companies to private investors.

Separately, Wang said China Mobile would pay 6 billion yuan ($879 million) of handset subsidies for customers of its third-generation services.