Bidding War for PCCW Leaves Analysts Mystified

From International Herald Tribune:

"The bidding war over the assets of PCCW, the biggest telecom company in Hong Kong, is looking stranger every day.

After the Internet and telecom bubble burst in 2001, no one wanted PCCW. Shares of the company collapsed, wiping out billions of dollars in value and making one the biggest corporate takeovers ever in Asia - PCCW's $28 billion acquisition of Cable & Wireless HKT in 2000 - into a penny stock corporation.

But now, for reasons unknown even to the analysts who cover the telecom business in Asia, everyone wants to acquire key PCCW telecom assets, which include its fixed telephone lines in Hong Kong. Last Friday, Macquarie Bank of Australia made an unsolicited bid. Then on Tuesday, TPG-Newbridge, an affiliate of Texas Pacific Group private equity firm in the United States, placed a counterbid that some insiders say was as high as $7 billion"