BEIJING-China Unicom said Chinese regulators ordered it to kill more than 40 “irregular” joint ventures with foreign investors by the end of the month, according to Reuters.
Companies, including France Telecom, Bell Canada Corp., Nextel Communications Inc. and Sprint Corp. have invested $1.4 billion in China Unicom’s mobile phone and fixed-line networks through joint-venture schemes called China-China-Foreign joint ventures, which was used to skirt a prohibition on foreign ownership in domestic telecoms operators.
Companies would set up legal joint ventures with Chinese companies which in turn invested in Unicom. Last year though, Beijing declared CCF ventures illegal and ordered Unicom to unwind the contracts, saying the ventures violated government regulations and should be dissolved by the end of the year.
