BEIJING-At an extraordinary general meeting on 10 November, China Mobile (Hong Kong) shareholders approved the company’s plan to purchase seven networks from its parent, China Mobile Communications, for US$32.84 billion. The company’s profit is expected to increase 2.6 percent per subscriber after the acquisition.
According to Chairman and President Wang Xiaochu, the acquisition price of about US$1,965 per subscriber for the seven networks was not expensive compared with other recent mobile network purchases elsewhere, some of which cost several times that amount.
China Mobile can still buy more networks from its parent, although the remaining networks in 18 provinces are rather small and insignificant. Potential further network acquisitions will depend on the result of the company’s integration of the seven networks it already purchased.