$256b mobile phone deal

Updated at 2.30am, Thursday: In Asia's biggest ever takeover deal, the mainland's leading mobile phone operator yesterday announced the US$32.84 billion (HK$256.02 billion) purchase of seven provincial networks from its parent.

The acquisition will make SAR-listed China Mobile (Hong Kong) the world's second largest operator in subscriber numbers after Vodaphone, which has 59 million subscribers.

As part of the deal, UK-based Vodafone will invest US$2.5 billion in China Mobile, receiving in exchange about two per cent of new shares in the company and access to a market forecast to be the world's second largest by the end of the year. About 3.5 per cent of the population use mobile phones. China Mobile said it would buy seven networks, some in the mainland's most affluent areas. They are in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning and Guangxi.

It would also acquire the networks' US$1.16 billion net debt from China Mobile Communications, the ultimate parent of the SAR-listed company.

The acquisition will add 13.6 million subscribers to China Mobile, increasing its subscriber base to 35.28 million from 21.63 million at the end of June.

The deal is bigger than the takeover by Pacific Century CyberWorks of Cable & Wireless HKT, which went through at US$28 billion in August, though it was worth as much as US$38 billion when it was announced in February.