Hong Kong's PCCW has held a much-publicized special shareholders meeting at which 75% present shareholders approved the buyout offer led by chairman Richard Li at the price of HKD4.5 per share, involving totally HKD15.9 billion.
Previous to this, the two major shareholders, Pacific Century Regional Developments, managed by Richard Li, and China Netcom, which is already acquired by China Unicom, announced plans to acquire the remaining 3.55 billion shares of PCCW, which accounts for 52.42% of the total stake of the company, at the price of HKD4.2 per share. It was the third attempt for Li to privatize PCCW.
On December 30, 2008, Li decided to raise the offer from HKD4.2 per share to HKD4.5 per share, aiming to encourage the independent shareholders to approve the privatization proposal.
With 75% votes of the shareholders, the buyout offer is approved by PCCW's shareholders. However, according to the law of Hong Kong, the privatization plan still needs to be approved by the local supervision department. If the proposal is approved by the court on February 24, 2009, PCCW will be officially delisted on February 25, 2009.