China Unicom approved to buy back shares from SK Telecom

Nov. 4, 2009 (China Knowledge) - China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd<600050><0762><CHU>, the country's second-largest telecom operator, said on Tuesday that its shareholders has approved the plan to repurchase a 3.8% stake held by SK Telecom Co Ltd for a total of US$1.28 billion.

In September, China Unicom announced a plan to buy all 899.75 million of its shares from the South Korea-based company at HK$11.11 apiece.

After the share repurchase, the total shares of China Unicom will be cut to 22.87 billion from 23.77 billion.

Funds for the share repurchase may come from its cash flow and working capital, or external financing, or a combination of the three, said China Unicom.

China Unicom last week said its third-quarter net profit decreased 11% from the previous quarter to RMB 2.72 billion due to intensive competition and huge 3G network investment. For the first nine months of this year, the company's net profit totaled RMB 9.34 billion.

H shares of China Unicom declined 3.36% to end at HK$9.79 yesterday.