Business Activities News
- Huawei seeks $1b of debt to buy 3Com stake
Date: 29-Nov-2006 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
SHENZHEN-BASED Huawei Technologies Co., Bain Capital LLC and Silver Lake Partners plan to borrow about US$1 billion to buy 3Com Corp.'s stake in a joint China telecommunications venture, said bankers involved in the deal.
Huawei Technologies, China's biggest maker of network switches and routers, started making offers to buy 3Com's 51 percent in their Hong Kong-based venture Huawei-3Com Co. on Nov. 15. Marlborough, Massachusetts-based 3Com is also trying to buy Huawei Technologies' portion, valuing the venture at more than US$1.8 billion, said the bankers, who declined to be named because bidding is still taking place.
Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, ABN Amro Holding NV, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will provide the debt to Huawei Technologies, said the bankers. The borrowing includes about US$600 million of six-year loans and a seven-year bond, according to the sources.
3Com spokesman Joseph Vukson in Marlborough wasn't immediately available to comment. Fu Jun, a spokesman at Huawei Technologies' headquarters in Shenzhen, wasn't available to comment.
The venture, set up in November 2003 to make routers and network switches and sell equipment made by 3Com in China and Japan, accounts for more than half 3Com's sales.
3Com, a maker of computer-networking equipment, is bidding against Huawei Technologies because it wants to grow sales and become profitable for the first time since 2000.
The private equity arm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has teamed up with 3Com to buy Huawei Technologies' 49 percent stake in the venture, said those with knowledge of the deal.
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