Shares in state-run telco China Unicom rose as much as 8.2 per cent on word that China’s most powerful tech firms take stakes in the company as part of ownership reforms.
Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu will take stakes of varying size in China’s second-largest carrier by subscriber numbers as part of mixed-ownership reforms to its structure, according an unnamed source cited by China news site The Paper.
At pixel time shares in China Unicom’s Hong Kong-listed unit were trading 8.4 per cent higher at HK$9.51. On the mainland A-shares in the state-owned parent company had risen a limit-up 10 per cent to Rmb6.77.
China Unicom had previously let slip in October that it was being considered for a pilot run of ownership reforms for state-owned enterprises. Shares rose as much as 6 per cent following that announcement – a six-month peak from. They are now down 4.9 per cent from that mark.
While developments since “mixed ownership reform” made its debut last year as a policy buzzword have shown that the process will not entail the actual privatisation of state firms, this hasn’t stopped excitement around related moves when they bring in private sector investors that might help improve sluggish returns on state assets.