- PCCW
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PCCW Ltd. 
Type Public (SEHK: 0008) Industry Telecommunications Founded In August 2000, PCCW acquired Cable & Wireless HKT (originally The Hong Kong Telephone Company Ltd., formed in 1925) Headquarters Hong Kong Key people Richard Li, Chairman, Alex Arena, Group Managing Director Products Fixed-line, Broadband Internet access, IPTV, Mobile, IT Solutions, Data Centers, Contact Centers, Integrated Global Communications, Infrastructure, Advertising and Interactive Services Employees 19,300 (2010) Website www.pccw.com/eng PCCW Limited (Chinese: 電訊盈科有限公司) is the holding company of HKT Group Holdings Limited, Hong Kong's premier telecommunications provider in the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) industry. PCCW also holds a majority interest in Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited. PCCW is headquartered in Hong Kong and maintains a presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, mainland China and other parts of Asia.
PCCW shares are listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange SEHK: 0008, and traded in the form of American Depositary Receipts on the Pink OTC Markets in the US (Ticker: PCCWY).
Contents
Main business
HKT Group Holdings Limited (HKT) was formed in 2008 to hold the telecommunications services, media and IT solutions businesses of the PCCW Group in a reorganization designed to improve the Group's operational efficiencies. As provider of Hong Kong's first quadruple-play experience[clarification needed], PCCW/HKT offers a range of media content and services across four platforms – fixed-line, broadband Internet, TV and mobile. PCCW is responsible for one of the world's largest commercial deployments of IPTV services under the now TV brand. In addition, the Group meets the telecommunications needs of the local and international business community, while supporting network operators with technical services and handling large-scale IT outsourcing projects for public and private sector organizations.
In recent years, the Group has made the transition from a traditional telecom operator to a next-generation provider of media content, applications and transactional services.
With more than 2.58 million business and residential lines in service, the Group has a leadership position in the fixed-line market in Hong Kong. In the broadband market, its NETVIGATOR Internet broadband service has the largest share of the market with 1.367 million retail and business customers. The Group's IPTV service, now TV, has reached more than 40% of the estimated 2.3 million households in Hong Kong. The Group under the PCCW mobile brand has also invested significantly in expanding its 3G network since its return to the mobile market in 2005 – since then its 3G customer number has grown more than 10 times.[citation needed]
PCCW/HKT has more than 8,000 PCCW Wi-Fi hotspots cover various busy locations such as food outlets, shopping malls, universities, and public transport, and the number is growing continuously. After laying enough optical fibers in Hong Kong to circle the planet 33 times, the Group has made the broadband capabilities of this technology available to some 77% of the territory's households at speeds of up to 1,000 Mbit/s.[citation needed]
Quadruple-play
PCCW/HKT is the only operator in Hong Kong - and one of the few in the world - to offer genuine quadruple-play experience to customers.[citation needed] This means that the same infotainment, applications and transactional services are made available where appropriate via the four customer-delivery platforms - fixed-line, broadband Internet, mobile and TV. Customers can tailor their own lifestyle according to personal preference and schedule.
A considerable part of the infotainment content comes from now TV, launched in 2003 and widely regarded as one of the world's most successful commercial deployments of IPTV. As of December 2010, now TV had expanded its customer base to 1,039,000 subscribers. Viewers may choose from more than 190 channels, about half of which offer movies, sports, news and general entertainment programs.
The flexibility of the Group's quadruple-play capability allows customers to watch now TV programming not only on a TV set, but also on a mobile phone, an online PC, or its eye Multimedia Service and PCCW eye2. Also available under the quadruple-play offerings is a range of lifestyle services such as the MOOV digital music streaming, snaap! (where friends and families can share photos and videos stored digitally on the PCCW/HKT network and view them via the quadruple-play platforms), Yellow Pages directories, etc.
Commercial and International Business
The PCCW Commercial Group is providing integrated ICT solutions to small, medium and large enterprises. One of its milestone commercial projects was Asia's largest IP-enabled network for securities and derivatives markets. Built for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and known as SDNet, the network lays the foundation for the long-term growth of Hong Kong as an international financial center.
PCCW Solutions is the Group's IT and business process outsourcing flagship. It has worked on projects for customers in financial services, public service, telecommunications and the enterprise community. Its accomplishments include a state-of-the-art Electronic Passport System, known as e-PASS, and the Smart Identity Card system for the Hong Kong SAR Government.
PCCW Teleservices operates a contact center outsourcing business and boasts one of the region's largest contact management networks and a significant operation in the U.S. It handles inbound and outbound calls, emails and other transactions for customers, and serves many multinational companies.
PCCW Global provides integrated global communications solutions, runs a fully meshed IP, fiber and satellite network and serves the voice, data and multimedia needs of multinational enterprises, as well as the operational requirements of service providers.[citation needed]
Geographical operations
PCCW's businesses have a presence in the following regions[1]:
Fixed-line.
PCCW's fixed-line service, eye Multimedia Service and PCCW eye2 are delivered by Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) Limited, an operating division of HKT Group Holdings Limited. The Group's fixed-line network enables users to make local and international phone calls with voice availability of 99.99%.
As a breakthrough in voice communications service, the eye Multimedia Service also provides a wide range of infotainment and practical applications. Users can make voice or video calls, watch now TV, access a digital music service, listen to fairytale stories, learn languages, listen to Cantonese opera, shop from home, pay bills, browse Yellow Pages, check real-time stock quotes, place bets and watch live horse-racing, purchase Mark Six, check Octopus transactions, etc. PCCW eye2 is a portable media center with an 8-inch (200 mm) touch-screen LED monitor, through which customers can access more than 100 types of content and interactive applications.
Broadband Internet.
As one of the Group's four Quadruple-play platforms, NETVIGATOR is Hong Kong's leading broadband provider. NETVIGATOR reaches 97% of all households in Hong Kong and serves broadband users with a choice of Internet access speeds, plus practical value-added services. The capabilities of optical fiber are available to 67% of Hong Kong's households via a variety of NETVIGATOR Fiber Direct service packages.[2]
NETVIGATOR broadband users can stay connected to the Internet anytime, anywhere via NETVIGATOR Home Wireless, more than 8,000 PCCW Wi-Fi hotspots and NETVIGATOR Everywhere, a unique wireless solution interconnecting Wi-Fi•HSPA networks.
Mobile.
PCCW mobile is an operating division of HKT Group Holdings Limited (HKT).
As well as providing voice and data communications, PCCW mobile serves a broad spectrum of customers by offering media content and interactive services as one of the Group's four quadruple-play platforms. This enables subscribers to choose mobile services, such as real-time TV, streamed digital music, shared viewing of photos and video clips, remote monitoring, ticketing, instant messaging, email solutions and an integrated fixed/mobile office communications solution.
IPTV
now TV is one of the world's largest commercial deployments of IPTV and one of the largest pay-TV providers at Hong Kong. It is delivered by PCCW Media, an operating division of HKT Group Holdings Limited (HKT). now TV serves Hong Kong with more than 190 channels of local, Asian and international programming, including premium content such as Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1, J-League, French Open, ATP World Tour, and World Snooker Tour. In addition, now TV is both a leading producer of news, sports and infotainment programming and a provider of a wide range of interactive services. now TV can be enjoyed on PCCW eye2, a portable media center with an embedded now TV decoder, and select now TV content and interactive applications can also be accessed via the Group's 3G mobile network and broadband service.[citation needed]
PCCW Engineering.
PCCW announced the formation of wholly owned subsidiary CASCADE Limited in January 2003 and transferred almost a quarter of its total work force to Cascade. Cascade employs more than 3,000 staff as of June 2003. Cascade provides PCCW's telecommunications network operations with support and maintenance services. It provides also network infrastructure design, build-out and maintenance services, consulting solutions, customer installation and maintenance services, project management, operating systems development and maintenance and technical support to clients other than PCCW. Started from Dec 08, Cascade became a Subsidiary of PCCW-HKT Limited, which PCCW-HKT is still 100% owned by PCCW. The name of Cascade is removed from now on, become a part of HKT and named as "Engineering", a business unit of PCCW-HKT, simply like Commercial group of PCCW. All staff in Cascade had transferred to PCCW-HKT without changing. [3]
PCCW Global
PCCW Global is an operating division of HKT Group Holdings Limited (HKT). With centers in Hong Kong, Herndon, Virginia in the US, London in the UK, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, plus teams covering the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas, PCCW Global supply the voice and data needs of multinational enterprises, as well as the operational requirements of service providers. The PCCW Global network covers over 1,500 cities and 110 countries, and supports a list of integrated global communications solutions which include:
- IP solutions;
- Transmission solutions including fiber and satellite;
- Managed services and solutions; and
- Voice services.
Incident with YouTube
On 24 February 2008, Pakistan Telecom caused a major interruption of access to the video sharing website YouTube. Pakistani Government authorities directed Pakistan Telecom (PTCL) to "block" the YouTube site, to prevent access within Pakistan. PTCL engineers accidentally leaked a "black hole" announcement to PCCW. PCCW had recently provided temporary access to PTCL in order to restore the nation's loss of internet access due to a previous major submarine cable break event. PTCL began leaking the "black hole" BGP announcement to PCCW prior to PCCW's completion of the BGP validation and filtering policies process on the newly activated link. This allowed the announcement to propagate to other networks.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9878655-7.html
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/031008-youtube-pakistan.html
http://www.circleid.com/posts/82258_pakistan_hijacks_youtube_closer_look
http://www.betanews.com/article/Pakistan-YouTube-incident-adds-to-international-outage/1203967670
Once detected, PCCW immediately blocked the leaked announcement from PTCL and access was restored to YouTube within 2 hours." [4][5]
PCCW Solutions (Unihub, Business eSolutions)
As an operating division of HKT Group Holdings Limited (HKT), PCCW Solutions is the IT and business process outsourcing flagship of the Group.
PCCW Solutions is the information technology services and business process outsourcing (BPO) division of PCCW. Press releases prior to February 2006 refer to it by the name Unihub. It is owned by Wen Yunsong, son of China's prime minister Wen Jiabao.[6] Unihib was a re-branding of PCCW's Business eSolutions division, from 1 September 2003.[7]
Business eSolutions division formed a venture with China Telecom to provide IT solutions to major business organizations in 2002. This was in addition to PCCW's PCITC alliance with Sinopec, formed to serve Sinopec plus other players in China's petrochemical sector. The division also contributed to the new Hong Kong Identity Card system in 2003.[6]
In early 2003, Business eSolutions entered a contract to provide services for Bank of China's credit-card back office processing system in China.[citation needed] It also extended a 2002 enterprise resource planning (ERP) project into more provinces for China Mobile and completed the flight information display system (FIDS) for Xiamen Airport, and a human resource management and financial management system for the Hong Kong Council of Social Service.[citation needed]
PCPD
Majority-owned by PCCW, Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited ("PCPD", SEHK: 00432) is principally engaged in the development and management of premium property and infrastructure projects, as well as investment in premium-grade buildings in the Asia-Pacific region.
PCPD holds the development rights for the Cyberport project, which is owned by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and includes the prestigious Bel-Air residential development.
Apart from the signature Bel-Air residential development, PCPD holds the first right of refusal to join with PCCW to redevelop PCCW-owned telephone exchange buildings into residential and / or commercial properties. While it continues to explore high-end development potential in Hong Kong, PCPD also plans to pursue opportunities in the mainland China property market. As part of the ongoing exploration of development potential in other parts of Asia Pacific, PCPD has drawn up long-term plans to develop resorts at Hanazono, Hokkaido in Japan and Phang-nga in Southern Thailand. (sourced from http://www.pcpd.com)UK Broadband
The UK Broadband Group (UKBG) provides equipment and wireless services and solutions to the telecommunications industry, service providers, channel partners and the public sector in the U.K. The Group holds multiple licenses for both fixed and mobile spectrum. It offers include 4th generation Wireless Technology (4G), Wi-Fi, Wireless Ethernet and fixed high-speed wireless link services, as well as wholesale wireless data capacity. UKBG is a wholly owned subsidiary of PCCW and it combines the role of being PCCW's 4G wireless technology centre with building a wireless services, and wholesale data capacity business in the UK focused on B2B and B2G customers, in particular the public sector and businesses looking for wireless data solutions for their needs in CCTV, mobile working, education, healthcare, disciplined services, transport, data offload, wireless Ethernet and resilient connectivity. (source: http://www.ukbroadband.co.uk/)
PCCW Corporate Social Responsibility
PCCW contributes to the community through sponsorship, environment friendly practices and volunteer services.
The PCCW CSR Policy sets forth standards of social behavior that are able to meet and exceed the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations in five focus areas. They are:Caring for Community, Caring for Environment, Caring for People, Supply Chain Management and Corporate Governance. Community services - PCCW provides communications services for a variety of social service schemes. This includes support for students, single parents, the unemployed, distressed people and the elderly who benefit from counseling hotlines, info-line services for Medilink and networks to help find employment.[6]
During each year, PCCW continues to contribute to the community by providing practical and financial help to charitable, community, cultural and environmental causes. Volunteer service groups formed by PCCW employees and their family members also continue to provide their long-term service or ad hoc programs.
Caring for Environment - PCCW assigns a high priority to the protection of the environment when conducting company activities. PCCW has been a member of the Environmental Committee of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce since the early 90s. The Committee periodically meets to discuss environmental issues such as Hong Kong air quality and carbon reduction measures. PCCW has also been a Board member of Business Environment Council (BEC) since the early 90s and was one of the founding members of Private Sector Committee on the Environment (PSCE).
Caring for People - Employee Caring - PCCW activities in relation to employee caring can be categorized into four areas: employee satisfaction initiatives; learning and development; health and safety; and employee welfare.
Supply Chain Management - PCCW maintains relationships with more than 1,000 suppliers globally. It has been a practice to require its suppliers to comply with the necessary regulations governing labor, health and safety, environment, etc. To meet the increasingly stringent requirements as a leading corporate citizen, the Company aims to adopt a more coordinated approach in the supply chain management and to help suppliers understand its CSR policies and practices.
Corporate Governance - The principles of good governance serve to uphold a high standard of ethics, transparency, responsibilities and integrity in all aspects of business and to ensure that corporate affairs are conducted in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. The Company Board endorses a Corporate Governance Report each year and it is published in its annual report .[citation needed]
Education
The PCCW foundation has provided sponsorship for local data network service for the Internet2 project initiated by the Joint Universities Computer Center (JUCC). The project enables staff and students at local universities to connect and exchange with Internet2 universities all over the world in researching the next generation of networking technologies. The foundation also supports the Workplace English Campaign and other education-related initiatives, such as annual scholarships for top students nominated by local universities.
Corporate history
PCCW was formed by Richard Li, the younger son of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka Shing. Formerly Pacific Century Development, it was an investment holding company. The company's English name was changed from "Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited" to "PCCW Limited" on 9 August 2002.
It then won a controversial land deal, acquiring valuable waterfront real estate from the government without any public auction bids. Many in Hong Kong cried cronyism, as the Hong Kong Government, under chief executive Tung Chee Hwa, gave away the land to his new high-tech residential and commercial venture called Cyberport.[8]
The stock of Pacific Century CyberWorks from $6.00 to $19.50 in December 1 to 28, 1999. Dec 23 is a Heritage of Pacific Century CyberWorks, break record of single company in Hong Kong history with 5 billion dollars transaction. Pacific Century CyberWorks become the seventh ( value over 170 billion HKD ) listing company in Hong Kong Exchange in Dec 28, 1999.
PCCW acquired Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) in August 2000, which was formerly known as the Hong Kong Telephone Company (founded in 1925).[citation needed] Initially, HKT owner Cable & Wireless entertained a bid from Singapore Telecommunications, but there was Beijing concern about a Singapore company owning the largest Hong Kong telephone system.[citation needed] PCCW entered the scene and offered Cable and Wireless PCCW stock and US$11 billion in bank loans by HSBC, Bank of China, BNP Paribas & Barclays.[citation needed] The acquisition vaulted PCCW from a dot-com holdings company to one of the largest universal corporations in Hong Kong. PCCW is now also the leading Internet service provider in Hong Kong,[citation needed] using the Netvigator brand for dialup modem and DSL service. PCCW has been the object of much scorn in Hong Kong as a result of the HKT purchase.[citation needed] In 2003 the company's stock price was down 96 percent from its 2000 peak.[citation needed] In the face of challenges due to debt, intense local telecoms competition and a struggling international joint venture Reach (50/50 owned by PCCW and Telstra), PCCW was the worst-performing blue chip on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE) in 2002 and 2003.[citation needed]
In 2003, Cable and Wireless finished cashing in all the stock from the 14.7 percent stake it had in PCCW. Worth US$5 billion at the time of the 2000 acquisition of HKT, the stock sales yielded only $1.9 billion in the end.[citation needed]
Richard Li gave up his spot as PCCW's chief executive officer in July 2003 but remained as chairman and executive director. Jack So, who left his chairman position at Hong Kong subway operator MTR Corporation Limited, took up the job of group managing director at PCCW on 25 July 2003.
Attempted exit
Although PCCW's substantial shareholder China Netcom had earlier expressed objection to any disposal of key assets to foreign groups, it also refused to increase its stake; Richard Li attempted to exit from the business in 2006. Li received competing offers by two consortia led by Australia's Macquarie Bank and private equity firm Texas Pacific Group/Newbridge submitted expressions of interest last month to acquire PCCW's core telecom and media assets.[9]
PCCW chairman Richard Li has agreed to sell his indirectly held 22.66 percent stake in PCCW on 11 July 2006 to Fiorlatte Ltd, a new startup company wholly owned by Francis Leung Pak-to, for a total consideration of HK$9.16 billion. In turn, Francis Leung Pak-to has agreed to sell an 8% stake in PCCW to Telefónica for 323 million euros.[citation needed] Leung, former Peregrine investment banker, is closely associated with Li Ka-shing. PCCW's stock, which had joined Hang Seng Index (HSI) index on 9 August 2000,[10] ceased to be a HSI constituent, effective 10 June 2008.[11] PCCW
Purported Cable & Wireless takeover bid
News report from the Sunday Times on 6 February 2003 revealed that PCCW made a preliminary takeover approach to Cable & Wireless on December 2002 as the British company's share languished near record lows.[12]
Li told the Sunday Times newspaper that PCCW would not launch a hostile bid for C&W but that the two companies could work together to enhance shareholders' value.
The Times quoted Li as saying that he was planning to try again that week with a two billion pound (US$3.27 billion) bid for C&W. Following the news report, PCCW issued a statement through the Hong Kong stock exchange on 6 February 2003 morning saying it had not made a formal offer for C&W and was not in takeover talks with the company. Later in the day, in London and Hong Kong, PCCW issued statements saying it had made a preliminary takeover approach to C&W in a letter at the end of 2002.
PCCW apologised on 10 February 2003 for making what were seen by some in the market as contradictory statements. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange demanded an explanation from PCCW after noting discrepancies between the two statements regarding its approach to C&W about a possible bid.
In any case, C&W had rebuffed PCCW's takeover approach by February 2003.[13]
Privatization plan
An attempt was made in December 2008 to take the company private. On 30 December, majority shareholders Pacific Century Regional Developments, controlled by Richard Li, and China Unicom Group raised their joint offer for PCCW from HK$4.20 a share, minutes before shareholders were due to vote on the original buyout plan.
In a heated shareholders meeting held on 4 February 2009 which lasted seven and a half hours, the shareholders approved the PCCW plan allowing its majority shareholders to force out all minority shareholders of the company amidst allegations of vote-buying.[14] Privatisation would allow PCCW to be delisted from Hong Kong Stock Exchange,[15] while its parent would remain listed in Singapore.
Governance activist David Webb alerted the authorities to allegations that hundreds of agents at Fortis Insurance Co. (Asia), once part of PCCW, may have been given board lots of 1,000 PCCW shares.[16] The Securities and Futures Commission found that Francis Yuen, a Li associate and member of the buyout group, had instructed a senior executive at Fortis to distribute PCCW shares to about 500 Fortis agents. Yuen and Fortis Asia regional director, Inneo Lam, had exchanged telephone calls shortly before Lam ordered half a million PCCW shares that were later split into board lots and given away to his staff;[17] Lam's secretary had asked for, and received, share transfer forms from Yuen's secretary. Majority shareholders gained approval from the High Court to proceed in their US$2.2 billion privatisation, but the Appeals Court unanimously overturned the ruling.[18]
See also
- Hong Kong Telecom
- Now TV
- Netvigator
- PCCW Mobile
- PCCW Solutions
- Jaleco
References
- ^ "About Us/PCCW around the world". PCCW. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-02-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20080228053157/http://www.pccw.com/eng/AboutUs/PCCWaroundtheworld.html. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
- ^ http://www.netvigator.com/eng/
- ^ "Cascade Limited: About Us". Cascade. 2003. Archived from the original on 2008-02-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20080218054619/http://www.cascade-ltd.com/abtus/index_company.html. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
- ^ "YouTube outage blamed on Pakistan". BBC News. 2008-02-24. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7262071.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
- ^ Stiennon, Richard (2008-02-24). "Pakistan removed from the Internet". Threat Chaos. ZDNet. http://blogs.zdnet.com/threatchaos/?p=548. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
- ^ a b "News & Events" (Press release). PCCW Solutions. http://www.pccwsolutions.com/a5.html. Retrieved 2008-04-13.
- ^ "PCCW attains BS 7799" (Press release). PCCW Solutions. 2003-11-17. http://www.pccw.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=PCCW/COMMON/newspopup&pageid=1058030271674&pagelang=eng. Retrieved 2008-04-13.
- ^ "Cyberport critics get stake hint". AFP. Hong Kong Standard. 21 March 1999. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=&art_id=25641&sid=&con_type=1&d_str=19990321&sear_year=1999. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
- ^ Hong Kong PCCW's Li sees decision on any asset disposals by mth-end, AFX News Limited, Forbes Magazine, 3 July 2006
- ^ "Changes in HSI Constituent Stocks" (Excel/XLS). Hang Seng Indexes. http://main.hsi.com.hk/hsicom/constituent/hist_hsi.xls. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
- ^ "Hang Seng Indexes Announces Index Review Results" (PDF) (Press release). Hang Seng Indexes. 2008-05-09. http://main.hsi.com.hk/hsicom/announce/20080509e.pdf. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
- ^ "Hong Kong tech firm mulls C&W bid". BBC News. 2003-02-10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2741919.stm. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
- ^ "Cable & Wireless shuns PCCW". The Asian World Street Journal. 2003-02-10. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4692/is_200302/ai_n17657584. Retrieved 2008-03-18.[dead link]
- ^ Benjamin Scent, "It's outrageous", The Standard, 21 April 2009
- ^ Mark Lee, PCCW Investors Approve Li's $2.05 Billion Buyout Bid, Bloomberg, 4 February 2009
- ^ Frederick Yeung, "PCCW move to go private approved", Page A1, South China Morning Post, 5 February 2009
- ^ Jonathan Cheng (30April 2009) Regulators Detail PCCW Allegations, Wall Street Journal
- ^ Reuters (17 Apr 2009) HK court hears call for PCCW privatisation revote
External links
Categories:- Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
- Pacific Century Group
- Telecommunications companies of Hong Kong
- Multinational companies headquartered in Hong Kong
- Warrants issued in Hong Kong Stock Exchange
- Former Hang Seng Index Constituent Stocks
- Internet service providers of Hong Kong
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