Financing Structure Of China's Telecom Operators

China is the largest and fastest growing telecom market in the world with over 583 million mobile and 343 million fixed-line subscribers. In this highly capital-intensive market, telecom carriers are expected to be competitive in capital operation when they want to reposition and expand in the marketplace. The main purposes of this paper are to analyze the institutional and financial structures of the Chinese telecom carriers, to summarize their financing patterns demonstrated during the restructuring process and their capital expenditure framework given the market conditions.This paper provides a thorough review of the history and the current restructuring of telecom operating industry in China; a summary of Chinese telecom carriers' financing history; a collection of the major financing activities of the listed Chinese players; and quantitative financial analysis for their funding choices and capital expenditure levels.It is found that Chinese carriers are moving towards multi-financing strategy by adopting diversified funding sources in order to reduce their overall financing costs and keep solid capital structures. Internal funding is serving as a dominated and important financing source, along with slightly positive equity financing inflows and negative aggregate debt financing cash flows during the past few years. The four listed operators basically show different financing preference between debt and equity, which is demonstrated in their various financing patterns and financial structure results.