CITIC Capital in advanced talks on AsiaInfo take-private – report

An agreement is expected to reached by year-end, two people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg, adding that Primavera Capital and Silver Lake - who were said to be among the PE firms that expressed an interest in AsiaInfo-Linkage - have dropped out of bidding.

Power Joy (Cayman), a wholly owned subsidiary of CITIC Capital China Partners II, a $295 million vehicle, offered to purchase all AsiaInfo's outstanding shares in January. This was followed by reports of several private equity firms and strategic investors making contact.

In February, it was reported that the likes of KKR and TPG Capital were looking at the possibility of a joint bid with CITIC Capital as well as acting independently. Amdocs, Oracle, IBM and Ericsson were also said to be among those interested in AsiaInfo's billing software.

AsiaInfo is being advised by Goldman Sachs and Shearman & Sterling, while Morgan Stanley is working with CITIC Capital.

AsiaInfo reported a net income of $72.9 million in 2011, up from $54.8 million the previous year. This came as revenues increased from $343.8 million to $481 million. Nearly all the company's takings come from the sale of business and operation support systems to China's three state-owned telecom providers, with China Mobile alone accounting for more than half of total revenues.

The company had a market value of $798 million as of yesterday's close.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Buyouts
• buyout
• TMT
• CITIC Capital
• TPG Capital
• KKR
• Primavera
• Silver Lake