Listed firms halt trading due to high investment in China Unicom

Several listed firms stopped trading today because they are involved in investing a huge volume of private capital into state-owned China Unicom.

On Wednesday, China's second-biggest telecommunication carrier said it would raise about 78 billion yuan (US$11.7 billion) from a dozen investors, including Alibaba and Tencent. But China Unicom deleted the related statements later for "un-confirmed issues". The final details of the deal may be released on Monday.

The listed arms of the investors, including electronics retailer Suning Commerce Group Co, software giant Yonyou Network Technology and network service provider Wangsu Science & Technology Co, announced yesterday a halt to trading.

The deal represents the largest capital raising in the Asia-Pacific region since 2010. It will also be the biggest deal in recent years under China’s mixed-ownership reforms, which seeks to integrate and merge state-owned assets and private capital, industry insiders said.

“The spot light of the deal is not only the capital, but new opportunities and business operation and structure of China Unicom,” said Guosen Securities in a report.

Shares of telecommunications equipment makers rose yesterday as it is expected they will benefit from 5G and China Unicom’s reform.

Shenzhen-listed telecom equipment giant ZTE Corp jumped 2.32 percent to close at 22.95 yuan while Tongyu Communication Inc, a Shenzhen-listed mobile communications antenna maker, surged 3.23 percent to 34.5 yuan, compared with a 0.5 percent rise in the Shenzhen stock index yesterday.