Hutch talks delay CAT listing
CAT Telecom Plc will have to put off its listing schedule on the Stock Exchange of Thailand from the next quarter to later in the year, pending unfinished talks with Hutchison Telecom on a buy-out of their joint-venture cellular network.
Acting CAT president Phisal Jorphochaudom said yesterday that it wanted to finish taking over the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1-x cellular network of Hutchison-CAT, its joint venture with Hong Kong's Hutchison, before moving to list on the SET. The completion of the network takeover will enable CAT to evaluate its real business value for the listing. Hutchison has already proposed that CAT pay around Bt30 billion for the network, and CAT is considering asking Hutchison to mark down the price. Phisal hopes that the negotiations will be finished this year. The buyout is part of CAT's plan to merge the network, which currently covers 25 provinces, with its own network in 51 provinces. Hutchison-CAT has marketed the service by leasing the network in 25 provinces from BFKT, which is part of the Hutchison group. CAT's capitalisation panel has yet to announce officially whether CAT will postpone its listing schedule from the next quarter. CAT will proceed with a soft launch of its CDMA 2000 1-x cellular service in the southern part of Thailand on March 31, but exclusively for its employees and their family members. A source at CAT said the state agency was expected to finalise the air-time rates of the service at between Bt400 to Bt500 monthly for a call time of 2,000 minutes. Calls in excess will cost Bt0.25 per minute. Separately, CAT's board yesterday approved a plan to set up a new unit to provide an e-auction service. CAT senior executive vice president Sompol Chanprasert said the unit targeted Bt600 million in revenue this year, Bt3.5 billion next year, Bt6.7 billion in 2008, and about Bt10 billion in 2009.
Usanee Mongkolporn The Nation
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