China Tower said to raise $6.9b in IPO

China Tower has reportedly raised a lower than expected $6.9 billion from its IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The company established to manage the infrastructure assets of China's three mobile operators sold 43.1 billion shares at HK$1.26 per share, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

This is at the low end of the company's marketed price range for the offer, and well below the up to $10 billion that China Tower had by some reports been anticipating raising from the offer.

But according to the report, the relatively lackluster result is down to investor uncertainty at the prospect of a trade war between China and the US, instead of any judgment of the company itself.

The offer is still set to be the biggest IPO since the Postal Savings Bank of China's $7.6 billion offering in 2016, Bloomberg said.

The offer was backed by 10 cornerstone investors including a unit of Alibaba Group. These investors purchased a combined $1.4 billion worth of shares in the offer.

China Tower plans to use 60% of the proceeds of the offer for capital expenditure, put 30% towards repaying bank loans and use the remaining 10% as working capital.