China Mobile shares gained on their Shanghai debut on Wednesday after the company raised 48.7 billion yuan ($7.64 billion) in the country’s biggest public share offering in a decade.
The stock opened at 63 yuan, 9.4 percent higher than the offer price of 57.58 yuan, before paring gains over the course of the day to close 0.52 percent higher at 57.88 yuan.
The carrier’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed 3.33 percent higher. The company said in a filing Tuesday that it would press ahead with a plan to buy back up to 2.05 billion shares, worth nearly $13 billion.
The carrier’s debut is being closely watched after a number of Chinese companies including BeiGene recently saw shares fall below their offering prices on the first day of trade.
The world’s largest mobile network operator by total subscribers, China Mobile had sold 845.7 million shares at 57.58 yuan each in Shanghai.
China Mobile has said it plans to use proceeds from the offering to develop projects including premium 5G networks, infrastructure for cloud resources and intelligent ecosystems.
The Shanghai debut comes after the Chinese telecommunications operator was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) almost a year ago due to a ban ordered by former U.S. President Donald Trump.
China Mobile’s smaller domestic competitors, China Telecom and China Unicom, are already listed in Shanghai. The three telecom operators were delisted from the NYSE after a Trump-era decision to restrict investment in Chinese technology firms, which has been left unchanged by the Biden administration amid continuing tensions between Washington and Beijing. – CGTN
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