The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TSE, 台灣證交所) yesterday heralded a record high of 698 listed companies and vowed to attract another 40 firms seeking initial public offerings (IPO) this year, a TSE executive said yesterday.
"The bourse has listed 698 firms in total, marking a historic high since it was founded 46 years ago," TSE chairman Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said at a ceremony yesterday to welcome seven new public firms.
A total of 30 new companies went public last year, eight of which were unsuccessful, while another 12 were acquired by other companies, Wu said.
The total number of TSE-listed companies dropped to 688 in 2006 from 691 in 2005 and 697 in 2004.
As well as the seven new firms listed yesterday, another 13 companies have been approved to go public this month, TSE president Su Song-chin (蘇松欽) said, adding the number of TSE-listed companies will exceed 710.
Foreign investors, who account for 33 percent of the holdings on the local market, own more than 60 percent of the nation's IT stocks, Wu said.
Wu further encouraged overseas-based Taiwanese companies to return and list in the home bourse.
"It would be to those foreign-based Taiwanese companies' advantages to go public in Taiwan, which has a 142 percent stock turnover -- higher than Hong Kong's 40 percent," Wu said.
Prices of some 80 TSE-listed companies more than doubled in the last four years with some growing three or four-fold, he said.
In addition, the TSE yesterday vowed to average a daily turnover of NT$136 billion next year -- a goal analysts called challenging.
"It will be tough," said Kevin Chung (
Last year daily turnover set a new high for recent years at NT$135 billion as the government tried to boost the local stock market by introducing more initiatives before the legislative and presidential elections, Chung said.
Next year, those bullish factors could disappear and increased political uncertainty and weaker economic growth would negatively impact the bourse, he said.
Chung also said he was concerned about foreign investors' unusual activity this quarter.
"They have been sellers of local stocks in the fourth quarter. They have been net buyers of local shares since 1998," Chen said. "Foreign investors are an important driver of the local stock market."
Enfield Medical Co (東貿國際), one of the seven companies that went public yesterday, is the nation's largest provider of dialysis products.
After partnering with Germany-based Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) in January last year, Enfield's net profit for the first three quarters totaled NT1.11 billion (US$34.22 million).
This was a four-fold growth from a year earlier.
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