China Telecom prices shares for US$8.4 billion Shanghai listing after removal from NYSE

China Telecom, the country’s largest fixed-line operator, will raise as much as 54.2 billion yuan (US$8.4 billion) from its stock offering in Shanghai, months after it was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) following a US blacklisting over purported ties to the Chinese military.

The company is selling 10.4 billion shares at 4.53 yuan each in the listing exercise, according to an exchange filing in Hong Kong. If fully exercised, an overallotment option would take the amount of shares sold to nearly 11.96 billion, matching its previously stated aim of raising about 54 billion yuan of proceeds in the flotation.

“The issue price was determined based on several factors including the fundamentals of the issuer, valuation of comparable companies, the industry in which the company operates, market conditions, needs for proceeds and underwriting risks,” the Beijing-based firm said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

The telecoms giant was one of four Chinese companies with listings in Hong Kong and New York to have their shares delisted from American bourses following a November 2020 executive order by former US President Donald Trump. The others were China Unicom, China Mobile and CNOOC, China’s largest offshore oil explorer.

The order banned American investors from investing in companies identified by the US Department of Defense as having ties to the Chinese military. US President Joe Biden expanded the ban to 59 companies in June, replacing Trump’s prior order. Americans have a year to divest any holdings they have in those companies.