media release Monday, June 19, 2000

Support for the Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Limited (Hutchison) Rights Issue has been high with shareholders subscribing for 84.8% of their entitlements, the company announced today.

"This is a very encouraging result and a strong endorsement of our wirefree strategy, particularly given the degree of sharemarket volatility in the telecommunications sector recently," Hutchison Managing Director, Mr Barry Roberts-Thomson said.

The Issue had the full support of Hutchison's parent company, Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL), which agreed to take up its full entitlement and to underwrite the Issue. Strong support was also shown by Hutchison's major institutional shareholders.

Following allotment of the new shares, HWL's shareholding will increase from 54.0% to approximately 58% of Hutchison and the second largest shareholder will be the Roberts-Thomson family entity, Leanrose Pty Limited which will hold 12.5%.

Hutchison will use the $702 million raised by the Issue to replace short term funding for its purchase of 1800 MHz spectrum licences. The company plans to use these licences to construct a national wireless network for the provision of high speed data services.

HWL Group Managing Director, Mr Canning Fok said: "Hutchison is taking wirefree services to a new level of sophistication through its investment in a network optimised for the revolution in wirefree data. This is in line with the strategy HWL is pursuing through its telecommunications interests in Europe, the USA and Asia."

Allotment of new shares and despatch of shareholding statements for the new shares will take place by July 4. Normal (T+3) trading of new shares will commence by July 5.

Ends

media contact
Melina Reed, National Manager Public Affairs, Orange
(02) 9964 4874 or 0413 622 435

Orange products and services are provided in Australia by Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Limited.