Chinese state-owned companies CITIC Group and China Netcom Group plan to jointly bid for Hong Kong telecom company PCCW's phone business citing concerns that foreign suitors could take over the operation, a newspaper said Sunday.

Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po newspaper said conglomerate CITIC plans to join forces in the bidding with China Netcom through its Hong Kong investment unit GGI, quoting GGI spokeswoman Liao Wanzhuang.

PCCW has already been courted by Australia's Macquarie Bank Ltd. and US investment firm TPG Newbridge.

China Netcom, which has a 20 percent stake in PCCW, earlier expressed concerns about Hong Kong phone infrastructure falling into foreign hands.

Liao was quoted as saying CITIC is getting involved out of sense of "social responsibility," because it doesn't want Hong Kong citizens to be affected if new foreign owners don't run the city's leading phone service well or raise phone rates.

Liao reportedly said the bid will be financed by loans and that talks with European banks have reached a mature stage.

She said the CITIC-China Netcom consortium is mainly interested in PCCW's fixed-line business and its mobile phone unit SUNDAY Communications Ltd. , according to Wen Wei Po.

Dow Jones Newswires has put Macquarie's bid for PCCW's telecom and media assets, which is reportedly partly backed by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., at US$7.3 billion and TPG Newbridge's offer at slightly more than that.

People who answered the phones at CITIC Group and China Netcom said no one was immediately available for comment Sunday. Spokeswomen for PCCW and Macquarie didn't immediately return a reporter's calls. GGI's number in Hong Kong wasn't listed.