Shares of China Unicom Limited began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Wednesday, attracting investors' interest.

One hour after trading started, over 15 million Unicom shares changes hands at 22 U.S. dollars and above per share.

China Unicom, the second largest telecommunication operator in China, has raised approximately 5 billion U.S. dollars in its initial public offering of 2,458 million primary shares, representing 20.2% of its enlarged share capital, the company said.

China Unicom's IPO is the largest in non-Japan Asia. Total proceeds are expected to exceed 6.3 billion dollars including the exercise of over-allotment option at 740 million dollars and the exercise of warrants at some 600 million dollars.

The IPO share was priced at 15.58 Hong Kong dollars, which is equivalent to 19.99 U.S. dollars per share of American Deposit Shares (ADS).

China Unicom's shares are traded on the NYSE in the form of ADS, with each ADS equivalent to 10 ordinary shares traded on the Stock exchange of Hong Kong, where trading will begin Thursday, it was announced.

A three-week marketing roadshow in Asia, Europe and the United States has found strong investor interest as total demand generated was 3 times the offering size, said Wang Jianzhou, President of China Unicom.

He said the money raised will be channeled to the expansion of China's cellular network, paging, long distance, data and internet businesses.

"Investors want to see growth potential in the companies they are going to put money and China has a huge telecommunication market," said Georges Ugeux, NYSE Group Executive Vice President.

MICROSOFT: DOES STAY MEAN GO?
An unexpected stay order by the Microsoft trial judge allows the software giant to continue what appears to be business as usual without court-ordered restrictions. Full Story

WD PLANTS SAGETREE TO MANAGE SUPPLY CHAIN
Pressured to churn out hundreds of thousands of devices a day in an environment where the demand picture is foggy at best and warranty liability is critical, disk-drive manufacturers don't have the luxury or the time to deal with supply-chain inefficiencies. Full Story

LINUX BULKS UP FOR HIGH END
Linux first infiltrated the enterprise world as an Internet workhorse, offering a reliable platform for infrastructure needs such as Web and DNS servers. Full Story

NETWORK LATENCY, SECURITY HINDER TELECOMMUTING
More than one management and technological hurdle remain to be cleared before telecommuting will be the rule rather than the exception, according to IT professionals. Full Story

DELL TO PRE-INSTALL RED HAT LINUX ON SERVERS
Dell Computer said Tuesday that it has selected Red Hat Linux as the third operating system, behind Microsoft Windows and Novell NetWare, that it will factory install and support. Full Story