Chunghwa Telecom Board OKs New China Offices,Unit Fund Injection

TAIPEI -(Dow Jones)- Chunghwa Telecom said Tuesday its board approved establishing offices in Beijing and Shanghai and a NT$3.3 billion ($104.8 million) injection into its wholly-owned unit Chunghwa Telecom Singapore.

The fund injection into the Singapore unit is for "international telecom business," Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest phone company by revenue and the dominant fixed-line and Internet service provider, said.

Chunghwa Telecom's board in June approved the establishment of new wholly owned units based in Japan and Singapore, which will apply for telecommunications service licenses and are scheduled to start operations in the third quarter.

In June, Chunghwa Telecom said the two new units will each have a paid-in capital of NT$200 million.

When reached by phone Tuesday, Chunghwa Telecom Chief Financial Officer Joseph Shieh said the fund injection is because the company plans to cooperate with "an international phone company in international telecom services." He declined to elaborate further.

Separately, Chunghwa Telecom also said it plans to participate in the fund raising by Taipei Financial Center Corp., the owner of Taipei 101, the world's tallest building, based on its current shareholding ratio.

It didn't disclose the ratio or the amount it plans to inject.

The local Economic Daily News reported Tuesday Chunghwa Telecom has an 11.75% stake in Taipei Financial Center, and is the third-largest shareholder after China Development Industrial Bank, with 19.51%, and the government's financial reconstruction fund, which owns a 15.11% stake.

-By Alex Pevzner, Dow Jones Newswires; 8862-2502-2557; alex.pevzner@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 26th August 2008