MADRID (Dow Jones)-Spain´s Telefonica SA (TEF) said Sunday that it will widen its strategic partnership with China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (CHU), with each company investing $500 million to increase their cross shareholdings.

Telefonica said in a filing with regulators that it will raise its stake in China Unicom to 9.7%, while the Chinese telecommunications company will increase its ownership in the Spanish company to 1.37%.

Telefonica took a minority stake through a strategic alliance with what today is China Unicom in 2005.

The Spanish company currently has 277.7 million clients worldwide, up from 68.2 million in 2000. Annual revenue has doubled to EUR57 billion over the past decade, with 65% of total sales generated abroad. China Unicom, in turn, has 310 million clients.

-By Santiago Perez, Dow Jones Newswires; (34) 618 528 681; Santiago.perez@dowjones.com
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