City Telecom Makes US Public Equity Offering
06 December 2012
Hong Kong-based City Telecom has issued 4,025,000 American Depositary Shares (ADSs) on the Nasdaq Global Market, raising more than US$52 million in gross proceeds. Each ADS represents 20 of City Telecom’s ordinary shares, which are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
City Telecom is a provider of high bandwidth residential and corporate fixed telecommunications network and international telecommunications services. It specializes in the residential mass market and small-to-medium corporate and enterprise market segments. The majority of its revenues are derived from business conducted in Hong Kong. Through its Next Generation Network, a fibre-based network that covers 1.6 million Hong Kong homes and is capable of providing up to 1,000 Mbps symmetric broadband internet access, City Telecom offers internet, local VoIP, pay television and corporate data services.
“City Telecom’s first public offering of equity in the US since its dual listing in 1999 generated significant interest as investors sought to quickly pick up a share of a growing player in Hong Kong’s consumer telecommunications industry,” said Gene Buttrill, capital markets partner and head of the technology sector for Asia at DLA Piper in Hong Kong. “Denselypopulated Hong Kong is one of the world’s leading cities in terms of internet speed and the sophistication of internet networks, encouraged by favourable policies and a technology-savvy population that demands a high-bandwidth network which can deliver internet, phone and television through a single cable.”
DLA Piper advised Oppenheimer & Co as lead underwriter and sole bookrunner for the public equity offering. Jones Day acted as US and Hong Kong counsel to City Telecom. Schinders Law acted as Chinese counsel to Waitthe underwriters. Roth Capital Partners was co-manager of the offering.
