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Japan Mobile-Phone Operator May Pull Out of Hong Kong Firm's U.K. Unit

Kyodo News International, Tokyo Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/8313312.htm

Mar. 30--TOKYO - NTT DoCoMo Inc. is in talks with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. on selling its 20 percent stake in the Hong Kong conglomerate's third-generation (3G) mobile phone unit in Britain, a Japanese business daily reported Tuesday.

The deal would make the Hong Kong company the sole owner of Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Ltd., known as Hutchison 3GUK. It offers 3G cell phone services in Britain based on the W-CDMA format, the same format NTT DoCoMo's FOMA 3G services use in Japan.

Hutchison 3GUK has declined to introduce NTT DoCoMo's i-mode Internet service so the major Japanese mobile phone carrier appears to have concluded the firm is no longer worth its investment, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said in its Tuesday evening edition.

NTT DoCoMo said in a statement that the company has been in various talks with Hutchison, but nothing has been decided at this point.

"We have been maintaining good relationships with Hutchison Whampoa and Hutchison 3GUK," the company said.

In July 2000, NTT DoCoMo acquired a 20 percent interest in Hutchison 3GUK for some 186 billion yen. The book value of the investment has been lowered to about 39 billion yen as the joint venture was late in launching its 3G service, the newspaper said.

The Financial Times reported earlier this month that NTT DoCoMo was close to agreeing to sell its 20 percent stake in Hutchison 3GUK and that NTT DoCoMo and Hutchison were aiming to reach an agreement by the end of this month.

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