Hutchison in talks to sell Italian telecom unit?

HONG KONG: Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's flagship ports-to-telecommunications conglomerate, is in talks to sell unit 3 Italia to Italian mobile phone operator Telecom Italia SpA, media reports said on Thursday.

Hutchison declined to comment on the reports.

"We do not comment on market speculation," a Hutchison spokesman told Reuters.

An unsourced report by Italy's Il Corriere della Sera, widely picked up by Hong Kong newspapers on Thursday, said Telecom Italia may buy the Hutchison-owned Italian mobile operator.

The Hong Kong Economic Journal cited the report as saying 3 Italia could be valued at 4.3 billion euros ($6.15 billion).

Hutchison's telecommunications business 3 Group includes 3G network operations in Britain, Italy, Australia. Its third-generation (3G) telecom business, which had been losing money over the past decade but broke even in the second half of 2010, recovered further this year and is expected to contribute to the conglomerate's profit from 2011.

The conglomerate is expected to post a record first-half profit of HK$51.2 billion ($6.58 billion) later on Thursday, thanks in part to hefty one-off gains from the spin-off of its port assets, according to an average forecast by 10 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.