(Yicai Global) March 18 -- Shares of China Telecommunications surged after the major mobile operator said it is seeking to raise about CNY54.4 billion (USD8.4 billion) through a secondary listing in Shanghai after being forced to delist from the New York Stock Exchange.

China Telecom's Hong Kong-listed shares [HKG:0728] rose by as much as 7.5 percent to HKD2.84 (US 37 cents) today. The new equity would be priced around CNY4.5 (US 7 cents), about the same as its net assets per share of HKD5.3. 

The wireless carrier intends to issue 12.1 billion shares, or less than 13 percent of its outstanding stock on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Beijing-based company said in a statement yesterday. If a greenshoe option is exercised, the scale would not exceed 15 percent of the total. Shareholders will vote on the plan on April 9.

The mobile operator was forced to leave the NYSE in January after the Donald Trump administration gave an executive order to ban Americans from investing in several Chinese companies with alleged military ties. 

The raised funds will be used in three ways. The firm will spend CNY102.1 billion (USD15.7 billion) on these three fields over the next three years and more than half of the sum should be raised by the listing.

The first field is fifth-generation industrial internet projects, including wireless networks and multi-access edge computing. Secondly, the company will invest in converged infrastructure, including Tianyi Cloud and data centers. Moreover, the firm will focus on research and development.

China Telecom's revenue climbed by 4.7 percent to CNY393.6 billion last year from a year earlier, according to its earnings report published on March 9. Its net profit rose by 1.6 percent to CNY20.9 billion.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi