China Netcom, which is seeking a dual listing in Hong Kong and New York next month, will cut the size of its offer by at least 30 percent.

The plan is seen as a way of avoiding China Telecom's dismal performance in Hong Kong two years ago.

China Netcom was trying to offer its shares at a "generous but appropriate" price to get the deal "done nicely".

The mainland's second-largest fixed-line operator would tap 1 billion US dollars from the market at most, significantly less than its earlier fund-raising target of 1.5 billion dollars.

And it will offer fewer shares to the public, selling about 16 percent of the company's enlarged share capital to the public instead of the 25 percent as planned earlier.

In October 2002, China Telecom was forced to shelve its first attempt to list after it failed to attract enough orders to fill the book.

The fixed-line giant then re-launched its share offering two weeks later after slashing its size 60 per cent.

(CRI.com September 22, 2004)