Taiwan-based Gourmet Master Co Ltd (美食達人), which runs the popular 85o Cafe chain, has set the price for its primary listing at NT$168 after a public subscription was warmly received by the market, underwriter Yuanta Securities (元大證券) said yesterday.
The stock is scheduled to make its debut on Taiwan’s stock exchange on Nov. 22.
The Cayman Islands-registered company offered 3.85 million shares for the public subscription, which ended on Friday, triple the previously planned 1.28 million shares because of investor enthusiasm, Yuanta Securities said.
According to the underwriter, the share sale was more than 200 times oversubscribed.
The NT$168 price set for the listing is also higher than the NT$158.00 target the company had tentatively proposed in its prospectus published last month. It is hoping to raise about NT$650 million (US$21.4 million) from the listing.
Gourmet Master operates coffee shops in Taiwan, China, Australia and the US, providing coffee, tea, cakes and bread. About 60 percent of its total revenue comes from China, where it has 150 outlets.
The company had net income of NT$758 million last year, up about 130 percent from 2008, according to the prospectus.
In the first three quarters of this year, Gourmet Master had net earnings of NT$634 million, equal to an earnings per share of NT$4.95, the underwriter said.
The company said it will use the proceeds from the listing primarily to expand its operations worldwide, including adding outlets and recruiting research and development staff and bakers.
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