China Telecom (Hong Kong)'s US$1.65 billion share placement will be enlarged to US$2 billion after strong demand from global investors.
Sources close to the placement syndicate said the offering was oversubscribed by 106 per cent. It had received US$3.4 billion in orders from global investors when book building closed early yesterday in the United States.
Meanwhile, China Telecom's US$500 million bond issue was four times oversubscribed and was also enlarged, to US$600 million. This lifted the total funds raised to US$2.6 billion, from the originally planned US$2.15 billion.
The bond issue was priced at 1.9 per cent above US Treasury bills of the same maturity with a net yield of 7.94 per cent.
The placement increment will represent a 21.21 per cent enlargement of China Telecom's original issue plan.
The offer was finally priced at HK$24.10, a discount of only 2.4 per cent to the counter's closing price yesterday. It was one of the best pricings seen among blue-chip placement schemes.