DESPITE a 40.8 per cent fall in operating profit on continuing businesses, Pacific Concord aspires to be industry leader in telecommunications in China.
Its plan to spin off its telecommunications unit through a flotation, mooted for some time now, is still at the preparatory stage.
Concord Telecom was originally a joint-venture between Pacific Concord (60 per cent), parent United States Concord (30 per cent) and Cheung Kong (10 per cent). Cheung Kong withdrew its stake after the March flotation deadline was not met.
'The flotation was a condition Cheung Kong had set for its participation in the unit,' Pacific Concord chairman Wong Sai-chung said.
'Their withdrawal indicated different perceptions of the China market. It's all about technology for which a market trend is hard to predict. But we're fully committed to it.' With US Concord taking on the additional 10 per cent stake, it was likely that the unit would be listed in the US, analysts said.
'There were even talks earlier that it was going to be listed in Japan,' one analyst said.