Tian resigned from PCCW director completely disconnected from Netcom

PCCW (0008. HK) announced yesterday that Fan Shing Cha also resigned as executive director of Tian, a Non-executive director and Vice chairman of the group. Zuo will be appointed as a Non-executive director and Vice-Chairman, and Li Fusheng shall be a Non-executive director and the appointment shall take effect from today. Analysts said the announcement did not exactly identify the reasons for Tian's departure. But Tian in Netcom no longer hold a specific position, as Netcom's representative in PCCW, Tian's departure means he completely out of netcom. The reporter learned that China Netcom currently owns 20% of PCCW's shares, is PCCW's second largest shareholder. Last year, Mr Richard Li, the chairman of PCCW, proposed to sell PCCW's assets to a foreign consortium, after being opposed by Netcom, by senior banker Leung to offer a $6 per share acquisition of PCCW's 23% stake in Singapore. But the bill was defeated by a 76.3% vote against the small shareholder in late November 2006. Some market participants believe that it was the netcom's blocking of foreign involvement in PCCW that led Mr Li to sell out of PCCW's plan, leading to a rift between Netcom and PCCW. But Zhang, chairman of Netcom Group, said in April this year that he hoped that Netcom and PCCW could co-operate on construction. At the same time as Tian's resignation, Zuo, chief executive of Netcom, was appointed as Non-executive Director and Vice chairman of PCCW, indicating that the relationship between Netcom and PCCW remained unchanged. Mr Li's stance in May this year also confirms the view that the current PCCW relationship with its partner Netcom is good.