Hutchison-Whampoa Investors: What's Up With the European 3G Strategy?

TOKYO -- European wireless strategy, not numbers, will be high on investors' radar Thursday when Hutchison Whampoa (HUWHY:OTC BB) reports first-half fiscal earnings.

Investors are hoping that Hong Kong's top industrial conglomerate and Li Ka-shing, its powerful chairman, will explain their abrupt about-face last week in regard to a German third-generation mobile-phone license. Within hours of winning a license last Thursday, Hutchison pulled out of a consortium with Holland's KPN Telecom, BellSouth (BLS Quote) and indirectly NTT DoCoMo, which has a 15% holding in KPN. Hutchison said the $7.5 billion price tag was "too high and not cost-effective."

But investors want a better explanation than that, and also want to know how the conglomerate will secure its place in the European third-generation, or 3G, wireless market. ...