Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE) has approved Cayman Islands-registered Gourmet Master Co, which owns cafe and bakery chain 85˚C (85度C) in both Taiwan and China, listing on the local bourse, the exchange regulator said yesterday.
In a statement posted on its Web site, TWSE said its listing committee reviewed and agreed on Gourmet Master’s application for a primary listing in Taiwan, making it possible for the company to list its shares on the exchange by the end of the year. The listing will also require the approval of the Financial Supervisory Commission.
Last month, TWSE said more than 50 foreign companies have expressed an interest in a primary listing in the local bourse.
Gourmet Master, with paid-in capital of NT$1.14 billion (US$35.7 million), has an office in Taichung and two in Shanghai, the company’s application showed.
The cafe chain is currently the largest of its kind in Taiwan, running about 320 outlets around the country, Gourmet Master underwriter Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) said.
The chain also operates 130 outlets in China, as well as some in the US and Australia, Yuanta said in a separate statement.
Taiwan currently accounts for 51.74 percent of the company’s annual revenue, China makes up 43.03 percent and the remaining 5.23 percent is shared by the other regions.
However, neither TWSE nor Yuanta disclosed the exact number of shares Gourmet Master is planning to issue in its public offering.
Founded by Wu Cheng-hsueh (吳政學) in 2005, the cafe chain has seen its businesses increase in Taiwan and revenues have surged across the Taiwan Strait during the last three years.
Overall, the chain’s consolidated revenue rose to NT$6.28 billion last year from NT$2.81 billion in 2007, while consolidated net income increased to NT$758 million, or NT$11.25 per share, last year from NT$373 million, or NT$8.96 each share, in 2007.
In the first quarter of this year, Gourmet Master’s pre-tax profit hit NT$303.6 million, after it posted NT$1.83 billion in pre-tax profit last year and NT$500 million in 2008, both Yuanta and TWSE said.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS