China Mobile said on Thursday it had won approval to list on the Shanghai stock market, becoming the third Chinese state-controlled telecom giant to be cleared to issue A-shares after being kicked off US exchanges.
The company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange that the Issuance Examination Committee of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) had approved its application to issue yuan-denominated shares.
It said it was awaiting final approval from the CSRC.
China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless telecom operator based on number of subscribers, aims to raise 56 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) from the secondary listing, topping rival China Telecom‘s 54.4 billion yuan fundraising in August.
Investors were unmoved on Friday, with the company’s Hong Kong-listed shares dipping 0.3% to HK$48.30.
Two share sales of more than 50 billion yuan in the telecom sector will put pressure on the market, an institutional investor told China’s Caixin business magazine.
After jumping 34% on their debut in August, China Telecom’s A-shares have declined more than 30% and are trading below the offering price.
China Mobile has built more than 560,000 5G base stations across China, and has more than 360 million 5G subscribers. It recently passed 1 million 5G subscribers in Hong Kong alone.
“We will work hard to ensure continuous 5G coverage in rural towns across China by the end of 2022, as well as effective coverage in important parks and developed rural villages by then,” Yang Jie, the company’s president, said in a recent briefing.
He said the carrier would boost 5G applications and services such as cloud games, augmented and virtual reality, and explore financial technology.
- George Russell
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