At first glance, Hutchison Whampoa's sale of a substantial stake in its telecommunications arm to a relatively unknown - in this part of the world at least - Egyptian operator bears all the marks of the conglomerate's recent history of using one-off gains to offset the spiralling cost of rolling out 3G.
The sale of 19.3 per cent of Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (HTIL) to Orascom Telecom Holding netted the Li Ka-shing flagship $7.4 billion and simultaneously removed $20 billion of HTIL debt from the parent company's balance sheet for this year, thanks to its lower stakeholding of less than 50 per cent.
The announcement also came less than a month after the planned listing of Hutchison's Italian mobile unit 3 Italia was delayed until next year.
Investors, however, clearly see things differently.
Hutchison was the second-most traded stock yesterday, gaining 0.54 per cent to close at $74.60, while Hutchison Telecom was the third-largest gainer, adding 4.6 per cent to finish at $11.40.
In fact, there appears good cause for optimism.