BEIJING, June 2 -- A foreign group has bought US$25 million worth of convertible bonds from Datang Mobile, in a show of support for a key developer of China¡¯s third-generation (3G) mobile standard, TD-SCDMA, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday.

    The group's three members are Korea Development Bank's private equity arm, Korean venture capitalist STIC Investments and SeaBright China Special Opportunities, a fund co-owned by U.S. Seagate Global Advisors and China Everbright, the Hong Kong-based newspaper reported.

    Beijing-based Datang Mobile will soon announce further rounds of private equity investment, aiming to raise up to US$100 million by the end of this year, the paper said, quoting Liu Guoyi, the company¡¯s director of investment and finance, as saying.

    "With the funding, Datang will promote the standard overseas to make it an internationally adopted 3G standard,"Liu told the newspaper.

    "Broadening our shareholder base now would also prepare us for an eventual IPO (initial public offering),"he said.

    Datang plans to list in Hong Kong or on the NASDAQ in 2008, and was in talks with investment banks on the plans, according to the report.

    Developed in China, TD-SCDMA would have to compete on the global stage with two more widely accepted standards, WCDMA, which is popular in Europe, and CDMA 2000, developed by U.S. firm Qualcomm Inc.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)