SEC Company Response from PCCW LTD (CIK 0000842519) — Jul 22, 2005
PCCW LTD (CIK 0000842519)
Date: July 22, 2005 · CIK: 0000842519 · Accession: 0000950103-05-001753
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
Show Raw Text
CORRESP
1
filename1.htm
July 22, 2005
Mr. Larry Spirgel, Assistant
Director
Mr. Michael Henderson, Staff Accountant
Mr. Dean Suehiro,
Senior Staff Accountant
Division of Corporation Finance
Securities and Exchange Commission
450 Fifth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20549
FILED VIA EDGAR
Re:
PCCW Limited
Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31,
2004 filed
on May 12, 2005
Dear Mr. Spirgel, Mr. Henderson
and Mr. Suehiro,
Reference
is made to the letter received from the staff of the United States Securities
and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) dated July 11, 2005 regarding
the Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 (the “Form 20-F”)
filed by PCCW Limited (the “Company”) on May 12, 2005.
Set
forth below are the Company’s responses to the comments raised by the
staff. The comments are repeated below in bold and followed by the Company’s
response. Unless otherwise defined herein, capitalized terms used in this letter
shall have the same meanings assigned to those terms in the Form 20-F. Page
numbers below refer to the Form 20-F. This letter is the Company’s sole
response to the staff’s comments, and the Company has not amended the Form 20-F.
Capacity Prepayment Agreement, page 51
1.
Please
tell us how you accounted for the write-off of the capacity prepayment
under US GAAP and the basis for the accounting. It is
unclear to us why you are writing off the pre-purchased capacity when
Reach is still providing you with the capacity under the connectivity
agreements.
In
April 2003, in connection with a refinancing of Reach’s US$1,500 million
syndicated term loan facility, the Company, one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries
and, among others, Telstra Corporation Limited (“Telstra”) entered
into the Capacity Prepayment Agreement dated April 15, 2003 (“CPP”). Although
the Company and its subsidiaries (“PCCW Group”) and Telstra were
making purchases from Reach under ongoing connectivity purchase agreements,
PCCW Group and Telstra were precluded from utilizing the prepayment made under
the CPP to settle their purchases until Reach had “surplus cash”.
The “surplus cash” was determined in accordance with a
complex formula set out in the CPP whereby “surplus cash” is equal
to the excess of the quarter end balance of cash
p.1
and cash equivalents over
the quarter end cash requirements which includes principal and interest payments
on its bank debt. Only in the event of any surplus cash would the Company and
Telstra be able to utilize this prepayment to settle their capacity purchases.
Therefore, both the Company and Telstra would have to make cash payments for
their ongoing capacity purchases until Reach generated any surplus cash.
Reach’s
financial condition continued to deteriorate after April 2003. Prices
for international voice and data carriage continued to fall and the growth
in usage was not sufficient to compensate for the loss in revenue caused by
the price reductions. As part of the annual budgeting process, the cash flow
projections by Reach management indicated that it would incur negative debt-free
cash flows from 2004 to 2008. In light of the above and Reach’s 2003 operating
results, the Company was uncertain that Reach would be able to continue as
a going concern, which was confirmed in Reach’s audit report for
the year then-ended. This had led Reach, amongst other things, to negotiate
with banks for a further debt restructuring, including the possibility of forgiving
part of its loan. Upon completion of an impairment assessment, the Company
made the decision to fully provide for its remaining interest in Reach as
at December 31, 2003, including the amounts paid by the Company under the
CPP as it was highly unlikely that Reach would ever have any surplus cash as
determined in the CPP.
Item 5. Operating
and Financial Review and Prospectus, page 53
2.
We
note your presentation of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin.
Please expand your future filings to disclose the substantive reasons
why you believe the presentation of these measures provide useful information
to investors regarding your operating performance and liquidity. Yon
must also clearly explain how your measure of Adjusted EBITDA differs
from EBITDA and reconcile these measures to the most directly comparable
GAAP measures, net income (loss) and cash flows from operating activities.
Please address this comment throughout your filing.
The
Company believes that Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors
and facilitates industry comparison by investors because, as stated on page
53, it is commonly used in the telecommunications industry worldwide as an
indicator of operating performance, leverage and liquidity. Page 53 also
contained an explanation of the Company’s
calculation of Adjusted EBITDA and its reason for including this measure. On
page 89, the Company provided a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net cash
inflow from operating activities.
p.2
In
its future filings, the Company will clarify the substantive reasons for
presenting Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin and the
difference between Adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA; and provide a reconciliation
of Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss). The Company believes that these
new measures will help investors to better
evaluate the Adjusted EBITDA presented.
Consolidated
Income Statements, page F-3
3.
See
your line item, “Operating profit before net gains on investments,
provisions for impairment losses and restructuring costs.” Please
confirm to us that the presentation of this line item on the consolidated
income statements is either required or expressly permitted by the standard-setter
that establishes Hong Kong GAAP. Please see question 28 of our frequently
asked questions regarding the use of Non-GAAP financial measures
available on our website at http://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/faqs/congaapfaq.htm.
The line item “Operating profit before net gains on investments, provisions for impairment losses and restructuring costs” is
not prohibited by the standard setter that established Hong Kong GAAP. The
Company has not received any queries raised by Hong Kong regulators on
presenting this line item on the face of consolidated income statement.
In
accordance with paragraph 79 of the Statement of Standard Accounting Practice
1 (“SSAP 1”) “Presentation of Financial Statements” issued by the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, “additional
line items, headings, sub-totals and further analysis of line items should
be presented on the face of the income statement when required by a Statement
of Standard Accounting Practice, or when such presentation is necessary to
give a true and fair view of the enterprise’s financial statements”. Also,
Paragraph 82 of SSAP 1 states that “additional line items are included on
the face of the income statement and the descriptions used and the ordering
of items are amended when this is necessary to explain the elements of performance”.
Due
to the significant amounts of investment provision and impairment provisions
made over the past years, the Company believes it should separately
disclose the significant elements of the financial statements in order to present
a true and fair view of the Company’s financial performance.
Further
and significantly, upon changes to the Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standards
becoming effective from January 1, 2005, the Company will not include a line
item for “Operating
profit before net gains on investments, provisions for impairment losses and
restructuring costs” in its future financial statements.
p.3
If
you have any questions regarding the Form 20-F, please call Mr. Steve Lam
at (852) 2888 3083.
Very
truly yours,
PCCW
Limited
By:
/s/
Alexander Anthony Arena
Name:
Alexander
Anthony Arena
Title:
Group
Chief Financial Officer
p.4