China Unicom Corp., a unit of the smaller of the country's two wireless carriers, would start its planned issue of 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) in short-term debt from Friday to supplement capital, the firm said Tuesday.

China Unicom, indirectly owned by China Unicom Ltd. and China United Telecommunications Corp, would issue 9 billion yuan in one-year bills, and another 1 billion yuan in six-month debt, it said.

Proceeds from the issue would supplement the firm's working capital, it said in a statement in China's official Website for bond issues, without elaborating.

The bills would be sold to domestic institutional investors and be listed on China's national bond market July 20.

"Issuing short-term debt will help our company cut costs compared with applying for bank loans," it said.

China Unicom is one of the several companies which pioneer short-term debt issues after the government turned on the greenlight for domestic firms to issue such debt for the first time in May, to widen their financing channels and to reduce risks in the banking sector.

The company first announced the plan June 27 without giving details.

(Shenzhen Daily July 13, 2005)