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Stockholders sell US$258m worth of Hon Hai shares

Shareholders of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), including Chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) and Acer Inc, sold US$258.5 million worth of shares, or a 1.8 percent stake, in the company overseas, according to an e-mail sent to investors.

Investors bought 29.37 million global depositary receipts at US$8.8017 each, equivalent to NT$136.77 for each common share, said Edward Naylor, a Hong Kong-based spokesman at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which arranged the sale. Naylor declined to name the shareholders selling the stock.

The shares sold at a 3 percent discount to the closing price of Hon Hai's stock in Taiwan on Thursday. Hon Hai's share price yesterday fell 2.1 percent to NT$138 in Taipei at the close of the market. The company's shares have lost 6.1 percent of their value since Jan. 1, compared with a 1.6 percent drop for Taiwan's benchmark TAIEX index. Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ding (丁祈安) wasn't available to answer calls from Bloomberg.

Goldman bought 22.72 million Hon Hai shares from shareholders at an undisclosed price and sold the stock to global investors. The US investment bank later sold an additional 6.7 million shares to meet demand, Goldman said.

Hon Hai unit Foxconn International Holdings, a maker of handset parts, on Jan. 28 raised HK$3.4 billion (US$433 million) in its Hong Kong initial public offering, as investors ordered more stock than was available. The shares have since gained 3.7 percent compared with a 2.3 percent increase for Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index.

Gou is Taiwan's richest individual, with the equivalent of US$3.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine's annual survey. The founder of Hon Hai started the company with an investment of NT$300,000, his mother's money, to make plastic components for black-and-white televisions in 1974.

Hon Hai, which makes computers, mobile phones and video games for customers such as Dell Inc, Nokia Oyj and Sony Corp, will achieve 30 percent annual growth in its sales by the time Gou retires in 2008, he said on Jan. 19.

Acer on Thursday sold 1.5 million units of Hon Hai's global depository receipts -- each of which represents two Hon Hai common shares -- at an average price of the equivalent of NT$136.09 a share, according to Acer Spokeswoman Stella Chou (周之新).
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