HKs's Wharf Holdings seeks buyers for telecoms unit, sale may fetch more than $1 bln -sources

i-CABLE Communications

13/06/2016 07:12

By Denny Thomas 
    HONG KONG, June 13 (Reuters) - Hong Kong tycoon Peter Woo's 
Wharf Holdings Ltd  0004.HK  plans to sell its telecoms business 
in a deal that could be worth more than $1 billion, people 
familiar with the matter said, and has asked more than a dozen 
potential suitors, including both giant Chinese insurers and 
Western buyout firms, to submit bids.  
    KKR & Co  KKR.N , CVC Capital and TPG Capital Management are 
among the companies invited to submit bids, the people told 
Reuters. First-round bids are due by end-June, they said.  
    Insurers Anbang Insurance Group and Ping An Insurance Group 
 601318.SS , as well as acquisitive technology conglomerate 
Tsinghua Unigroup, are among the other suitors invited to bid, 
one of the people said. 
    Wharf Holdings, which owns some of Hong Kong's marquee 
properties including the Times Square and Harbour City shopping 
malls, said last year it was undertaking a strategic review of 
its communications, media and entertainment division.  
    That division includes a privately owned telecoms business 
called Wharf T&T - Hong Kong's second-largest business 
fixed-line operator, according to the company's website - and 
publicly traded I-cable Communications Ltd  1097.HK . 
    Officials at Wharf, Anbang, Tsinghua Unigroup, KKR, TPG and 
CVC declined to comment, while Ping An did not respond to  
Reuters' requests for comment.  
    The people familiar with the matter declined to be 
identified as the sale process was confidential. 
     
    ($1 = 7.7627 Hong Kong dollars) 
 
 (Reporting by Denny Thomas; Additional reporting by Tris Pan, 
Yimou Lee and Prakash Chakravarti; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) 
 ((denny.thomas@thomsonreuters.com; +852 2843 6358; Reuters 
Messaging: denny.thomas.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: WHARF HOLDINGS TELECOMS/M&A (URGENT, EXCLUSIVE, PI