Barclays Share News (BARC)

* Citic Telecom to use internal resources for acquisitions * Citic Telecom first acquired 20 pct stake in CTM in 2010 * CTM profit before tax $133 mln in year to March 2012 By Denny Thomas and Kate Holton HONG KONG/LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Citic Telecom is to buya 79 percent stake in a Macau telecom company from Cable &Wireless Communications and Portugal Telecom for $1.2 billion, giving the Chinese company greater access tofast-growing Macau. Macau, the world's largest casino market, has beenperforming strongly for CWC mainly due to tourism, but theLondon-listed company is exiting some non-core markets to focuson the Caribbean and Central America. Citic Telecom had already acquired 20 percent ofCompanhia de Telecomunicações de Macau SARL (CTM) in 2010. Thelatest deal will give it 99 percent in Macau's leading telecomscompany. Government-owned Macau Post will continue to own a 1percent stake, the two Chinese companies said on Sunday. Citic Telecom and Citic Pacific are part of China'sstate-owned conglomerate Citic Group, with business spanningfinancials to mining. Citic Telecom is focused on China and HongKong, but is expanding into international markets, it said inthe statement. Citic Telecom has also been diversifying its customer andservices profile from wholesale to become more consumer-focused,the statement said. CWC DIVESTMENTS CWC sold its 51 percent stake in CTM for $749.7 million, itsaid in a separate statement. The sale comes after the Britishbased group, which traces its history back to the 1860s, sold assets in Monaco and some islands to Bahrain TelecommunicationsCo in December in a deal worth up to $1 billion. Portugal Telecom said it would sell its 28 percent stake in CTM for $412 million and also signed a technology partnershipwith Citic. "This sale reinforces even more our financial flexibility,"Zeinal Bava, CEO of Portugal Telecom, said. The CEO said thesale would allow the group to focus investments in strategicareas: Portugal, Brazil and Africa. The deal values Macau's CTM at $1.47 billion including debtand represents an enterprise value to core earnings multiple of8.9 times based on results for the 12 months to 31 March 2012,CWC said. CTM had a net cash balance of $70 million as at 31December 2012. CTM is engaged in mobile, fixed line and broadband servicesin Macau and is a major supplier of telecom services tocorporate customers in Macau. Located on China's southern coast, Macau, a specialadministrative region like neighbouring Hong Kong, raked in $38billion in annual gambling revenues in 2012 after monthlyrevenues for December hit a record. Citic Telecom plans to fund the acquisition with internalresources and has secured some funding commitments from a groupof banks and other financial institutions, it said. It may alsoconsider raising fresh equity or bonds at a later stage torefinance the current facilities, it added. CTM reported revenue of $524 million and profit before taxof $133 million in the 12 months to March 2012. It had $323million of gross assets, and 460,000 mobile, 173,000 fixed lineand 142,000 broadband customers, at 30 September 2012. Barclays Bank is acting as the lead financial adviser andCITIC Securities Corporate Finance (HK) Ltd is acting as thefinancial adviser to Citic Telecom. CITIC Securities CorporateFinance is also advising Citic Pacific. J.P. Morgan Cazenove advised CWC.