May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's biggest company, may hold an initial public offering for its high-speed mobile-phone network in the U.K. in mid-2006.

At a briefing today in Hong Kong, Li reiterated plans to sell shares for the first time in the Italian mobile-phone unit by the end of this year. Hutchison's 3 unit, which lost HK$25.3 billion ($3.2 billion) in 2004, operates so-called third- generation networks in Europe, Hong Kong and Australia.

Li has been trying to turn the business around by getting customers to watch more video clips and play games online. Today, he reiterated his goal to make the business profitable.

``We expect 3G to achieve EBITDA break-even this year, and next year, we should post operating profit,'' Li said today after an annual shareholders' meeting. The 3G service at the end of March had 8 million subscribers after adding 1.7 million in the first quarter. That was up from 1 million a year earlier.

Hong Kong-listed Hutchison plans to have earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for the 3G business break even this year and to have the unit post operating profit next year, Li said. Italy and the U.K. are the 3 division's biggest markets, with 3.6 million and 3 million customers respectively as of March 30.

To contact the reporters for this story: Philip Lagerkranser in Hong Kong at lagerkranser@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 19, 2005 03:58 EDT