Shipbuilder to be first listed in Taiwan

China’s Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plans to sell shares in Taiwan next month, making it the first mainland firm to be traded on the island’s bourse, the chief underwriter said yesterday China’s fourth largest shipmaker aims to raise up to 4.5 billion Taiwan dollars (140 million US) via Taiwan Depositary Receipts (TDRs), said Jeff Wen, a project manager at SinoPac Securities handling the deal.
The company intends to sell 240 million TDRs, or 120 million of its shares, with the price range between 17 and 19 Taiwan dollars each, he said. It is aiming to list on September 8.
“The response is very enthusiastic as Yangzijiang will be the first Chinese firm to be listed in Taiwan,” he said.
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding is also registered and listed in Singapore.
Stanley Chu, a spokesman for the Taiwan Stock Exchange, told AFP that a leading Japanese technology company is planning to become the first Japanese firm listed in Taiwan in September.
The exchange aims to lure in the so-called “red chip” Chinese firms that are listed in Hong Kong, while about ten Singaporean firms have also expressed an interest, Chu said.
“Taiwan’s bourse is getting more and more internationalised, and closer trade ties with China help make it more appealing to foreign firms,” Chu said.
More than 90 percent of companies currently listed on Taiwan’s bourse are domestic enterprises.
Taiwan and China last year signed three financial memoranda amid warming ties, paving the way for closer cooperation in banking, insurance and securities.
The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, signed in June between the two, is likely to further speed up financial exchanges, making it easier for Taiwanese banks to set up branches on the mainland.
Depositary receipts are securities that allow investors to hold shares in foreign companies via their own local exchange. The most common forms are global depositary receipts and American depositary receipts.