Powercomm is a unit of state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEP).
Since it doesn’t have the financial capacity to bid alone, Hanaro plans to team up with one foreign and several local companies to buy a 30% stake in Powercomm in the auction in mid-October, a Hanaro official said, declining to be named.
However, he said the company wasn’t discussing a tie-up with LG Telecom Co. (Q.LGT) to bid for Powercomm.
Hanaro Telecom agreed last week to takepart in a third generation wireless consortium led by LG Telecom and also expand partnership in various services in both fixed line and wireless with LG Telecom.
An LG Telecom spokesman said Friday that the company isn’t presently considering participating in the upcoming Powercomm auction.
Hanaro, the country’s second largest Internet access provider, needs an alliance with Powercomm to save costs by using Powercomm’s nationwide cable lines, the Hanaro official said.
All of Korea’s telecommunications companies use either cable networks ofKorea Telecom Corp. (KTC) or Powercomm to provide various fixed-line services.
Kepco, which currently owns 89.5% in Powercomm, said in late June that it will auction off a 30% stake in Powercomm to both overseas and local companies in mid-October in hopes to select a single buyer by November.
The buyer of the 30% stake has an option to purchase an additional 5%.
Kepco guarantees that the 30% stake buyer will eventually be the largest shareholder in Powercomm as it plans to sell its entire Powercomm stake by the end of next year.
Powercomm is the country’s second largest fiber-optic network operator with 68,000 kilometers nationwide. Korea Telecom Co. is the largest with 94,406 kilometers.
Powercomm also operates 46,000 kilometers of cable TV backbone network.
