ECyberChina slips 8pc

ECyberChina Holdings' shares fell as much as 10 per cent yesterday after China Railway Telecommunications (China Railcom) denied any business co-operation with the SAR-listed company.

The property and technology investment company finished 2.2 HK cents lower, or 8.1 per cent, to close at 24.8 HK cents.

ECyberChina said yesterday it would pay HK$170 million to buy a 65 per cent stake in International Telecommunication & Telegraph (IT&T) of the United States.

Payment would be settled by the issue of 680 million new shares of the company at 25 HK cents each.

This would allow IT&T's shareholders to hold 26.71 per cent of eCyberChina's enlarged share issue.

The transaction would allow eCyberChina to have an indirect 52 per cent stake in a Sino-foreign joint venture, China Railway Optical Fibre & Information Technology Development.

ECyberChina was forced to cancel a press conference on Thursday to announce the deal to acquire the IT&T stake after China Railcom, the mainland's second-largest fixed-line operator, denied there was a deal with any Hong Kong-listed company.

ECyberChina had said it would be announcing a deal with China Railcom, but yesterday's announcement made no mention of such a deal.

The venture provides information network products and develops IC cards for pay phones.