BenQ Corp (明基), one of the nation's leading consumer electronics makers, executed a capital reduction plan yesterday as part of an effort to increase shareholder returns.
The company reduced its capitalization by 40 percent from NT$10.26 billion (US$311.3 million) to NT$15.38 billion. BenQ will now have 1.5 billion outstanding shares, down from 2.56 billion shares.
BenQ chairman Lee Kun-yao (李焜耀) announced the capital reduction plan in April.
"The reduction will enable us to write off losses incurred last year by the mobile phone business, and increase our net value per share to NT$11.3," Lee said at the time.
He also announced a plan to spin off BenQ's brand business on Sept. 1.
BenQ has been in the red since acquiring Siemens AG's unprofitable cellphone unit. The company said last September that it would stop funding the German unit, which is being liquidated.
The spin off will enable the company, to be renamed as Qisda Corp (佳世達), to focus on original design manufacturing operations.
Last Friday, BenQ said it would sell a Taoyuan County facility to its affiliate Darfon Electronics Corp (達方電子) for NT$500 million. It will use the proceeds to revitalize its financial structure.
In May, BenQ said it would sell its digital camera business to Ability Enterprise Co (
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