- Chaotic elements are springing up around a mixed-ownership plan for state-owned China Unicom (NYSE:CHU) that would result in Asia's biggest capital raise since 2010: $11.7B.
- Trading in the company's Hong Kong shares was suspended on Wednesday and will stay that way until further notice amid the confusion. Trading in the Shanghai shares have been halted since April. ADRs, meanwhile, are 2.7% lower.
- Unicom has now withdrawn the plan temporarily, noting "technical reasons" and saying it would file a new plan in three trading days.
- The withdrawal came because some terms of the plan violated recently changed securities rules, The Wall Street Journal reports. In one example, the shares it planned to sell exceeded 40% of outstanding, while new rules have a cap of 20%.
- It's not clear whether the company involved Chinese securities regulator CSRC in making the plan.
- The investor group was said to include Alibaba (BABA +3.4%), Tencent (TCEHY -2.7%), Didi Chuxing, Baidu (BIDU -1.6%) and JD.com (JD -4.2%).
- Now read: Alibaba: The Better Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Original article