China Unicom (SH 600050), a blue chip listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, announced Friday that its parent company, the China Unicom Group, will buy more shares to boost its undervalued share price.

China Unicom Group already holds 12.874 billion shares in its listed subsidiary, 60.74 percent of the total.

According to the announcement, the Group plans to increase its share-holding in the listed company 1 to 4 percentage points in the next nine months.

China Unicom Group believes that China Unicom's share price is too low and that this has damaged its public image and shareholders' interests, the announcement said.

Shares in China Unicom, the smaller of China's two mobile telecoms operators, have hovered around the 2.3 yuan (US$ 0.29) mark on the mainland market, considerably lower than its Hong Kong bourse price, which closed at 7.42 HK dollars (US$0.97) Thursday.

China Unicom's net capital per share is now 2.28 yuan (US$0.28).

Share prices of some blue-chips, including China Unicom and China Yangtze Power, have stayed at low levels this year even though the market index jumped over 30 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2006)