China Mobile confident of closing Far EasTone stake buy

SHENZHEN, China, Nov 19 - China Mobile <0941.HK>, the world's top mobile carrier by subscribers, said on Thursday that it is confident of completing its planned purchase of a 12 percent stake in Taiwan's FarEastone <4904.TW>, which may have stalled over political issues.

Far EasTone, one of Taiwan's top three mobile carriers, said in April that it would sell a 12 percent stake to China Mobile, but the deal has been on hold since May after the Taiwan government said it would not examine the plan, which is technically not allowed under current laws.

China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou said he was confident of closing the purchase, partly because of the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding between China and Taiwan, opening the door to a wide range of financial investments across the Taiwan Strait.

Wang added that China Mobile was planning to launch a mobile TV service by the end of this year or in early 2010, and that the company had no timetable for a commercial launch of fourth-generation LTE services for mobile networks.