REPORTEDLY disappointed with China Telecom’s performance, investors have abandoned as much as 756 million yuan or approximately $121 million worth of China Mobile’s A shares.
This development was revealed in the A-share IPO results released by China Telecom, which has 40 percent stake in Dito Telecommunity, the third telco player in the Philippines, last Dec. 28. The firm, delisted by the United States, offers A-share price lower than the issue price.
China Mobile’s public notice showed the number of unpaid A shares online trade was over 12.91 million, translating to 743 million yuan ($119 million) worth of shares, while the number of unpaid offline trade was more than 220,000 shares, corresponding to 12.7 million yuan ($2.03 million).
The total added up to 756 million yuan ($121 million), which is higher than the 653 million yuan ($100 million) previously reported from China Postal Savings Bank Co., Ltd. (601658.SH) in Dec. 2019, thereby setting a new record.
China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom were China’s top three telecom operators that were ordered delisted from the New York Stock Exchange by then US President Donald Trump via Executive Order 13959 issued on Nov. 12, 2020.
Pursuant to the executive order, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury issued a letter to the NYSE on Jan. 5, 2021 clarifying that after 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Jan. 11, 2021, Americans cannot engage in certain stock transactions of these companies.
On Jan. 6, 2021, the NYSE initiated the delisting procedure for the three telecom operators. Two weeks later, China Mobile submitted a written request to the NYSE for reconsideration.
The New York Stock Exchange denied China Mobile’s request for reconsideration on May 6, 2021.
Of the three telecom operators, only China Unicom has long been listed on China’s A-share market.
China Mobile’s board of directors okayed the proposal to issue RMB shares on May 17, 2021, and it was then approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission on Nov. 4.
China Mobile had aimed for the largest A-share IPO in a decade, as it intended to raise 56 billion yuan (approx. $8.96 billion) in the A-share initial public offering (IPO), higher than China Telecom’s projected IPO goal of 54.4 billion yuan (approx. $8.70 billion).
