|
PCCW posts $4.5M loss
|
 |
September 28, 2000: 7:15 a.m. ET
Pacific Century Cyberworks charge for C&W HKT purchase leads to loss
|
LONDON (CNNfn) - Hong Kong Internet and telecom firm Pacific Century Cyberworks on Thursday reported a first-half net loss as the company took a hefty charge for its acquisition of Cable & Wireless HKT.
The HK$34.9 million ($4.5 million) loss for the six months ended June 30 reflects the company's status before the Cable & Wireless HKT merger, which closed August 17. In the first half 1999, the company posted a HK$40.7 million loss.
Turnover rose to HK$104 million compared with HK$74 million in the previous period. The company amortized HK$222 million of a HK$1.2 billion arrangement fee associated with the deal.
PCCW made its earnings announcement after the market closed. Earlier, the company's shares ended unchanged at HK$9.00.
The stock has tumbled more than 40 percent since it announced the Cable & Wireless deal in February. Investors have been concerned about the fate of a joint-venture agreement it signed with Australian telecom operator Telstra Corp., as well as the sale of a 4.9 percent stake in PCCW earlier this month by the U.K.'s Cable & Wireless PLC, the former owner of Cable & Wireless HKT.
Most analysts covering the company had not made results forecasts because they had been waiting for PCCW to release more operational and financial data.
The company said Cable & Wireless HKT recorded a first-half operating profit of HK$4.2 billion, down from HK$4.3 billion a year earlier as revenues from international direct-dialled services fell 14.5 percent. Revenues from Internet and interactive multimedia services rose 45.2 percent.
PCCW, controlled by 33-year-old billionaire Richard Li, the son of tycoon Li Ka-shing, surprised investors when it announced in February it was buying Hong Kong's dominant telecom provider Cable & Wireless HKT in a $37.4 billion deal.
PCCW told analysts it would invest $25 million in an online directory joint venture with telecom group China Unicom and Yellow Pages advertising marketer R.H. Donnelley Corp., Reuters reported
The company said it would acquire 38 percent of the venture, which would be 31 percent owned by China Unicom, 18 percent by R.H. Donnelley and 4 percent by InfoSpace Inc. 
--from staff and wire reports
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
