TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空) said yesterday it expects to list on Taiwan’s emerging stock market on Friday after showing improved results because of growing demand for flights between Taiwan and China.
Under local securities regulations, a company has to be listed as an emerging stock for no less than six months before it goes public on the main board or the over-the-counter (OTC) market.
Both the OTC and emerging markets are operated by GRETAI Securities Market.
The carrier, founded in 1951, said it is riding the wave of the booming transport market across the Taiwan Strait and would continue to reap benefits from closer commercial ties between Taiwan and China.
Currently, TransAsia Airways offers 32 flights a week to a number of destinations in China, including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Tianjin, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Changsha and Wuhan. It also provides 48 flights a week to three other international destinations — Macau and South Korea’s Busan and Jeju — and operates more than 100 domestic flights a week.
The company, capitalized at NT$4.8 billion (US$159 million), reported that net profit for the first three quarters rose 50.6 percent from a year earlier to NT$723 million because of growing demand.
The rate of growth was the highest in the company’s history compared with similar periods and marks a major turnaround from the NT$398 million after-tax loss the carrier suffered in 2007 and the NT$638 million after-tax loss it suffered in 2008, prior to the opening of direct Taiwan-China flights.
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