Far EasTone targets 11% stake in APT in unexpected dealBy Lisa Wang / Staff reporterFar EasTone Telecommunications is to pay up to NT$5 billion (US$169.3 million) to acquire an 11.58 percent stake in Asia Pacific Telecom (APT), it said in an unexpected announcement late on Friday. Far EasTone plans to subscribe to 500 million new shares issued by APT, which is 40 percent owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry, it said. Hon Hai’s APT stake is to fall to about 36 percent after the transaction. The spectrum-sharing deal would “help Far EasTone gain better spectral efficiency and reduce network deployment costs, allowing more leeway for the company to develop 5G-enabled applications,” Far EasTone president Chee Ching (井琪) said in a statement. During government auctions in February, Far EasTone spent NT$43.04 billion on securing 5G spectrum on the 3.5GHz and 28GHz frequency bands.

Source: Taipei Times September 05, 2020 15:56 UTC