Hong Kong-listed Citic Pacific has hired BNP Paribas to arrange the spin-off its telecommunications unit in a separate listing during the second quarter of 2007, the South China Morning Post reported, citing market sources. The deal for Citic 1616, which provides international direct dialing and short message services, could raise US$100-150 million. Citic Pacific, part of Beijing-based conglomerate Citic Group, first indicated it may pursue this spin-off strategy last week. Given that there has been no Chinese telecommunication firm listing since 2004, one fund manager said a Citic 1616 IPO might spur the market. Citic 1616 handled more than 3.1 billion minutes of IDD traffic in 2005, 60% of which originated from the mainland.
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