CHINA Telecom Corp. is set to raise 47.1 billion yuan (US$7.3 billion) from a listing in Shanghai that is set to be the world’s biggest so far this year. China Telecom said Friday it will sell the shares at 4.53 yuan apiece, above the firm’s book value of 4.49 yuan each. The fundraising by China’s largest fixed-line operator is the biggest stock sale this year globally, exceeding the US$6.3 billion initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong by Kuaishou Technology in February. The offering will also be the mainland’s largest listing in a decade. China Telecom was one of three of China’s big telecom carriers whose American depositary receipts were delisted by the New York Stock Exchange in May along with China Mobile and China Unicom, following an executive order issued by former U.S. President Donald Trump barring U.S. investments in these companies. China Telecom, which went public in Hong Kong and New York in 2002, has had to scale back its fundraising in Shanghai, however. The sale of 10.4 billion A shares in the offering, excluding a greenshoe option, is down from the 12.1 billion it had said it would initially sell in April. Still, if the company exercises an over-allotment option, the company could raise as much as 54.2 billion yuan from its sale of A shares, according to a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. China Telecom’s listing will help it diversify financing channels, according to analysts. The telecom titan needs to ramp up funding as it backs China’s ambitions to lead in building investment-heavy 5G networks. The company is expected to continue benefiting as growth in China’s mobile subscription base recovers along with a digital transformation drive, Jefferies analysts Edison Lee, Lydia Lin and Chi Tsai wrote in a note. After the A-share listing, “we estimate China Telecom will turn from a net debt position of 30 billion yuan last year to a net cash position of 21.5 billion yuan,” they wrote. The firm said its revenue for the first half of this year came to between 213.6 billion yuan and 218.41 billion yuan, up around 11 percent from a year ago. Net profit grew around 26 to 28 percent to between 17.57 billion yuan to 17.85 billion yuan. China Mobile, the largest telecom carrier in the world by subscriber numbers, said in May it will list its shares in Shanghai in a deal that could rival China Telecom in size. China Unicom already has a separate unit listed in Shanghai. (SD-Agencies) | 