"It will be 3.30 ringgit per share." Time Dotcom parent, Time Engineering said last week that it expected to list the telecommunications unit in mid or late October in what will be one of Malaysia's biggest share offerings this year. Halim is also executive chairman of Renong Bhd, Malaysia's largest industrial conglomerate which controls Time Engineering. Time is expected to float 25 per cent of Time Dotcom, which owns the country's largest fibre optic network at 5,200 km (3,250 miles). Of the total network, 3,600 km is on land and the remaining 1,600 km is undersea.

Half of the IPO offering will be for institutional investors. State investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd is buying a 20 per cent stake in Time Dotcom in cash and a further 10 per cent equity in exchange bonds.

The Securities Commission (SC) has ruled that Time Dotcom must either get a technology partner or a third party with technological expertise to add value to the company before the share prospectus is issued. In the rare meeting with journalists, the normally press-shy Halim said Time would only need to sign a technical cooperation agreement for the purpose of listing. "For this purpose, we would require technical expertise in the areas of network integration, and provisioning of last mile solutions," he said. Time is still in talks with several unidentified foreign parties on taking a strategic stake in Time or on a technical agreement. France Telecom, Britain's Cable & Wireless Plc and NTL Inc are among candidates for a stake in Time Dotcom.

Time had in May broken off talks to sell a stake to Singapore Telecommunications. Halim said Time Dotcom expects revenue to nearly double to 1.9 billion ringgit in 2001 from 1.0 billion in 200O, and foresees an increase in subscribers to 1.1 million by the end of this year from 855,000 now and 402,000 at the start of this year. The number excludes an expected 4,00,000 Internet users. Time will launch its Internet service this week . Halim said the company has proposed 1.5 billion in capital expenditure over the next three years, funded by the IPO, cash flows and possibly bank borrowings. Halim said data services, backed by its fibre optic network, would overtake voice services as the main's main revenue driver by 2006. He said 65 percent of the revenue will come from data services by 2006.