China Tower, the wireless infrastructure joint venture of mainland China's three state-owned operators, has reportedly priced its planned Hong Kong IPO at up to $8.7 billion.
The company plans to offer 43.1 billion shares at between HK$1.26 ($0.16) and HK$1.58 apiece, Bloombergreported based on documents provided to the wire agency.
This would be at the lower end of the $8 billion to $10 billion that the company had been reported as seeking at the time of securing approval for the IPO.
But it would still be the biggest IPO globally since Alibaba's $25 billion US IPO in 2014
According to the Bloomberg report, 10 companies including Hillhouse Capital and a unit of Alibaba Group are among 10 companies that have agreed to act as cornerstone investors for the IPO, committing to buying around $1.4 billion in shares between them.
Pricing of the IPO is expected on August 1, and the shares are expected to begin trading on August 8, the report adds.
China Tower was established in 2014 to own and operate the infrastructure of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, as part of a government initiative to encourage network sharing and eliminate duplication of assets and investment.
The world's largest wireless infrastructure company owns and operates more than 1.8 million towers as well as related assets.