Newbridge Capital, the private equity investment firm, aims to acquire a stake in Richard Li Tzar-kai's telecommunications flagship business through a privatisation scheme involving PCCW's major shareholder, Pacific Century Regional Developments (PCRD).
PCRD is a Singapore-listed investment holding company which has a 23 per cent stake in PCCW and 46.9 per cent of Pacific Century Insurance Holdings (PCI).
Newbridge is leading the Texas Pacific Group in the consortium's proposal to buy out the minority shareholders of PCRD, who hold 25 per cent of the company, at 27 Singapore cents ($1.29) per share.
The offer represents a 27.6 per cent premium over the weighted average price over the past three months.
Pacific Century Group Holdings, which controls the other 75 per cent of PCRD, will neither sell nor buy shares in the transaction and has said it will support the proposal if Newbridge's bid succeeds.
This would bring about a new structure at PCCW, with chairman Mr Li remaining the single largest shareholder, while Newbridge would hold over 5 per cent indirectly through its stake in PCRD.
'We do want to invest in Richard Li's assets of two companies - PCCW and PCI - at the holding company level under one transaction,' said Tim Dattels, the managing director of Newbridge.
