The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

PCCW mulls Energis bid – report

  • alert
  • print
  • tweet

Overseas Chinese

By Drew Cullen • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 3rd February 2003 08:37 GMT

Free whitepaper – Enabling Datacenter and Cloud Service Management for Mid-Tier Enterprises

PCCW is interested in buying the UK's Energis, the Sunday Times reports.

The Hong Kong dotcom VC-turned telco also wants to buy the Macau bit of Cable & Wireless. In this case it might a willing/nay forced seller, considering the financial depths to which C&W has sunk.

Energis too has been in the mire. The Leeds-based telecoms group was saved from extinction when its major creditors, a group of banks, took it over. The company is now chaired by Archie Norman, part time Tory MP and former top banana at Asda, the supermarket chain now controlled by Wal-Mart.

PCCW is run by Richard Li, son of the richest man in Hong Kong. The company invested in a lot of dud businesses, accumulating a debt of $22bn along the way. However, one of those businesses was Hong Kong Telecom, owned by C&W. This cash cow is now enabling PCCW to consider overseas expansion again, The Sunday Times says. ®

Free whitepaper – Enabling Datacenter and Cloud Service Management for Mid-Tier Enterprises