Owners of HKBN Ltd., operating as Hong Kong Broadband Network, are reconsidering options for potential deals for the Hong Kong-based broadband service provider after previous attempts failed, Bloomberg News reported. Options include going private or bringing in new investors.
HKBN offers broadband internet services to residential and corporate customers, as well as telecom, data center and WiFi services. In its 2023 annual Report for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2023, HKBN reported total revenues of $1.5 billion, up one percent year-over-year. The company served 101,000 Enterprise customers and its network passed by 8,090 commercial buildings. On the residential side, HKBN’s network passed nearly 2.6 million homes and connected to 972,000 residential customers.
Major shareholders including private equity firms MBK Partners and TPG Inc. have restarted a strategic review with the aim of reducing their holding in the company, according to sources. Other options include raising cash through selling or leasing some of HKBN’s assets. Other major shareholders are the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Singapore’s GIC Pte, which has sold some of its stake this year.
HKBN has attracted interest from private equity firms including I Squared Capital, KKR & Co. and PAG in the past, but a deal was never reached, partly due to disagreements over valuation, Bloomberg News reported previously.
Infrastructure-focused funds and at least one Chinese telecommunications group have been approached about a possible deal, according to sources, which indicated that deliberations are ongoing.
The company’s shares jumped as much as 7.1 percent following Thursday’s Bloomberg News report on the deliberations, the biggest gain since November 3. Shares of HKBN, which listed in Hong Kong in 2015, had fallen 50 percent in the past 12 months prior to the Bloomberg News report, resulting in a market value of about $486 million.
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