Fubon Securities (富邦證券證) confirmed yesterday that Keen High Technologies Ltd (天鵬盛電子), the world’s third-largest contract manufacturer of MP3 and MP4 players, had signed a letter of intent to trade its shares on the over-the-counter market in Taiwan, starting next year.
Keen High signed the letter with Fubon last Friday, Fubon said in a statement.
It added that Keen High had originally sought to list in Hong Kong but decided to trade in Taiwan in keeping with the government’s effort to turn the country into a financial hub in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration recently eased regulations to encourage Taiwanese companies based in China and other countries to trade on the local stock market.
Headquartered in Shenzhen, China, Keen High makes consumer electronics devices, including MP3 players, portable multimedia players, photo frames and global positioning system (GPS) products.
Keen High’s board of directors passed a resolution on July 28 to apply for a listing on Taiwan’s over-the-counter market, Fubon said.
Fubon’s parent company, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), is seeking to expand its customer portfolio across the Taiwan Strait.
With assets totaling US$22 million, Keen High is expected to apply for an over-the-counter listing in the fourth quarter of this year and start trading shares by the middle of next year. Founded in 1992, the company exports its flash MP3 players to Europe, the US, the Middle East and southeast Asia.
The company is headed by chairman Aurthur Wang (王仁茂) and its board includes ViewSonic founder Chu Dai-ying (朱岱英), Transcend Information Inc (創見) chairman Peter Shu (束祟萬), WPG Holdings Co (大聯大) chairman Huang Wei-hsiang (黃偉祥) and other top high-tech executives.
In February, Keen High sold US$10 million worth of shares to China Israel Value Capital (中以創投) as well as Wistron Corp (緯創).
According to Fubon Securities, Keen High manufactured about 6 million MP3 and MP4 players last year, accounting for a quarter of the global market.
Most Keen High customers are electronic product outlets in Europe, where consumers prefer their domestic MP3 player brands over Apple Inc’s iPod, the Fubon statement said.
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