Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s largest telecommunication services operator, said it boosted its investment in Singapore to NT$3.5 billion (US$111 million) and will announce further plans for the venture next month.
“It’s not for an acquisition, however we’ll provide more information by mid-September,” Shen Fu-fu (沈馥馥), a spokeswoman for the Taipei-based company, said in a phone interview, citing a confidentiality agreement with the counterparty.
Chunghwa Telecom will increase its investment in Chunghwa Telecom Singapore by NT$3.3 billion, the company said in an exchange filing yesterday. The counterparty to the deal is not a Singapore company and the deal doesn’t entail investment in network cables, Sheen said without providing further details.
The company’s new chairman, Lu Shyue-ching (呂學錦), said last Wednesday that the firm would refocus on its core business by speeding up its deployment of high-speed networks and possibly investing in next-generation long term evolution technology.
While Lu’s remark seemed to suggest a shift from his predecessor Hochen Tan’s (賀陳旦) focus in real-estate related investment, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday that Chunghwa may raise its stake in the ownership of Taipei 101.
The report, without citing sources, said the company, which already holds an 11.75 percent share in the building, may seek to compete with bigger shareholders such as Chinese Development Industrial Bank (中華開發工銀), which owns a 19.51 percent stake, to control the building.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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