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Eric Ng

Yvonne Chan

Conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa yesterday confirmed it was considering a secondary listing on an overseas stock exchange.

 Deputy chairman Victor Li Tzar-kuoi said the company had done a preliminary study on another listing but no timetable had been set.

 His comments followed a report yesterday in a London newspaper which quoted his father, Li Ka-shing, as saying the company would seek a secondary listing in the US.

 'All I can say is it won't happen this week, but given that we have operations in 24 countries outside Hong Kong, it would be a natural development if one day we do seek a second listing,' Victor Li said.

 He said he was optimistic about overseas investor sentiment towards the company and said that 'with Hutchison's scale of operation, many places [markets] overseas could easily give it valuations higher than that in Hong Kong'.

 He highlighted the overseas success of the group in industries such as retailing, container terminals and telecommunications and denied that the absence of a secondary listing overseas would limit Hutchison's scope for development of its operations.

 He said the company had no need to raise funds at the moment but was keen to broaden its shareholder base - something another listing would achieve.

 Mr Li played down the decision by ratings agency Standard & Poor's to lower the company's local-currency rating outlook from stable to negative earlier this week. That decision was prompted by concerns about the conglomerate's willingness to take on greater business risks in overseas markets.

 The downgrade came a week after the company announced a near US$1 billion investment in United States mobile-phone company VoiceStream Wireless.

 'Hutchison has good business prospects and is in a good cash position. I think it is a communication issue [in regards to the downgrade],' he said.

 Hutchison shares jumped $3.50 yesterday to $73.75 as local blue-chips moved sharply higher.

 Meanwhile, Hutchison refused to comment on a report that it is in talks to sell part of its fixed-line telephone business to foreign investors.

 The report suggested Hutchison Telecom was talking to British Telecom (BT) and Deutsche Telekom.

 DBS Securities analyst Peter Milliken said: 'It makes sense for not just Hutchison, but the other fixed line businesses . . . to sell their stakes to a bigger company because they're awful investments.'  Hutchison, New World and New T&T collectively have only about 2 per cent of the fixed-line market in the SAR.

 'They've been throwing their money down the well. They won't see any returns for years,' Mr Milliken said.

 Selling stakes to a multinational company 'will help them gain some business and credibility', he said.

 New World Development was previously rumoured to be in discussions to sell a stake in its fixed line business to Telstra and MCI WorldCom. New World has denied the rumours.



Hutchison keen on foreign float to widen base of shareholders