According to Reuters, China Tower won approval from Hong Kong’s listing committee, an independent group of market participants convened by the Hong Kong exchange, as a result China Tower can begin pre-marketing of the deal as soon as next-week, while books could be opened as soon as 9 July.
According to those familiar with the matter investors and bankers were waiting on Friday for the pricing of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi’s IPO, which could raise up to $6.1 billion. The Xiaomi’s deal is expected to act as a key test of the market, with the second half of 2018 predicted to be busy in terms of IPOs. Timings of the China Tower deal will rest on the outcome of the Xiaomi deal.
Formed in 2014, China Tower was formed by merging the mobile tower operations of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. China Tower operated a total of 1.9 million tower sites at the end of 2017, with 2.7 million tenants.
The company is hoping to raise between $8-10 billion, the top end of which would value the company at $40 billion and make it the world’s largest IPO since Alibaba which set a record in 2014 with a deal in New York worth $25 billion.
China International Capital Corporation (CICC) and Goldman Sachs are acting as joint sponsors of the China Tower IPO.
