Asia's third largest overnight block trade of the year was completed on Monday when Telefonica Internacional sold a 2.5% stake in China Unicom raising $859 million. The Spanish telecom operator halved its existing 5% stake to fund acquisitions in Europe and Latin America.
It picked a fairly opportune time as Chinese telecom stocks have been on an upswing since late October. This momentum will also have been attractive to investors, particularly those who believe China Unicom deserves to be re-rated after underperforming its peers all year.
Pricing came at HK$11.14 - a 3% discount to the stock's HK$11.48 close according to a termsheet seen...