China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom finalize stake in China Tower

Cellular towers in China
Telecom network operators China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom announced their equity structure in the new tower company called China Tower.

The stake of China Mobile will be 38 percent in China Tower, China Unicom will have 28 percent and China Telecom will hold 28 percent and State-owned China Reform Holdings will pick 6 percent.

China Tower is following the footsteps of Indus Towers, a three-way joint venture among Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, three leading GSM telecom network operators in India.

China Mobile would transfer 118.4 billion assets in return for 38 percent stake in China Tower and 65 billion yuan cash. China Unicom will transfer 63.2 billion tower assets for 28 percent stake and 25.4 billion yuan in cash. China Telecom will transfer 34.3 billion assets for 28 percent stake and 3.1 billion yuan cash. State-owned China Reform Holdings will pay 8.1 billion yuan for the remaining 6 percent stake in China Tower.

Due to the tower asset disposal, China Mobile will post 19.5 billion yuan pre-tax capital gain; China Unicom 9.7 billion yuan; and China Telecom 5.1 billion yuan. Under this deal, each tower is worth $22,000.

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