November 18 -- China Unicom (600050.SH, 0762.HK) plans to issue 15 billion yuan worth of 180-day super and short-term commercial papers (SCPs) to institutional investors on the interbank market, its fifth issue of SCPs this year, reports China News.com, citing a filing to the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing yesterday.

Half of the proceeds raised will be used for the operator's 2G, 3G and broadband businesses, with the remainder to be used to repay bank loans.

According to China Unicom, the SCP issuance will raise the proportion of funds directly raised, and will lower fundraising costs.

Through the end of September, China Unicom had short-term borrowings of 18.399 billion yuan, while long-term loans totaled 12.993 billion yuan. Debt that will come due within a year totaled 6.37 billion yuan.

The mobile operator had a funding shortfall of 39 billion yuan as of end September.