Eight Banks Commit to Loan for PCCW JVEight banks have committed to a US$1.5 billion syndicated loan for a joint venture between Hong Kong's Pacific Century CyberWorks and Australian telecom giant Telstra Corp, lead banks Barclays Bank Plc and Chase Manhattan Bank said last Friday, December 22.Besides Barclays and Chase, the banks are Citibank, HSBC, Rabobank, Credit Suisse First Boston, Sanwa Bank and UBS Warburg, they said in a statement,according to Chinadaily. The banks contributed minimum amounts of US$100 million and US$150 million each for the loan, which PCCW and Telstra would use to finance development of their IPBC Internet protocol joint venture. Initially the loan was for US$2 billion, but the banks said earlier this week it had been scaled back to US$1.5 billion because of the reduction of capital expenditure plans by PCCW and Telstra. PCCW also said it would increase its monthly tariffs for residential and business telephone service effective on January 22. The company said in a statement the residential telephone usage would be increased to HK$110 (US$14.1) a month from HK$90 (US$11.54), while the monthly basic business line would be raised to HK$128.80 (US$16.51) from HK$108.80 (US$13.95). It said residential tariff changes, approved by the government and the legislature in 1998, had been deferred twice by the company because of Hong Kong's difficult economic situation at the time. PCCW, which in August completed the merger with Cable & Wirless HKT, the region's dominant telecommunications service provider, said the new local telephone tariffs would still be among the lowest of the world's major cities. In another development, PCCW launched last Thursday its combined Internet and TV service in the financial capital of Bombay through its Indian joint venture. Data Access India, a joint venture between PCCW and the local SPA Enterprises, had launched the fledgling Network of the World (NOW) service in New Delhi two months ago. |
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