China United Telecommunications Corporation and China Unicom Limited have jointly announced that the proposals of selling China Unicom's CDMA business to China Telecom and the merger with China Netcom were approved at the companies' special general meeting held this week.
According to the report of China Unicom, ten proposals were approved at this meeting. Of which, the merger with China Netcom and the sale of its CDMA business were the most important. Other proposals included the specifics of the merger deal, the objective, price, pricing method and pricing basis of the transaction. In addition, the general meeting of China Unicom agreed to rename China Unicom Limited as China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited.
According to China Unicom, the merger with China Netcom is still waiting for the approval of the court meeting and special general meeting of China Unicom and the transaction will not be completed until it gains the approval of Hong Kong High Court on October 14, 2008.
Meanwhile, China Unicom says that the funds gained by selling its CDMA business to China Telecom will be used to develop its GSM business and to construct a 3G network. The company plans to invest CNY100 billion in the construction of WCDMA network in 2009 and 2010, according to previous reports.