Dukang Distillers Holdings Ltd (杜康控股), a China-based producer of distilled liquors, is planning to raise funds in Taiwan through a listing of Taiwan depositary receipts (TDRs) on the main board, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE, 台灣證交所) said yesterday.
Dukang, a producer of traditional Chinese baijiu — a distilled liquor made from fermented grains — has filed an application with the TWSE for the TDR listing, the exchange said.
According to a prospectus filed with the TWSE, Dukang plans to issue 130 million TDRs, each of which will be the equivalent of one of the company’s common shares. It hopes to raise NT$2.21 billion (US$74 million).
Dukang has been listed in Singapore since September 2008, when it became China’s first baijiu distiller to go public overseas.
In a statement, Dukang said the TDR listing was undertaken to improve the company’s liquidity and broaden shareholder base.
The listing will “also increase public awareness of the group and will promote the group’s brand and corporate image in Taiwan. This will be beneficial to the group’s business development in Taiwan in the future,” it added.
Dukang will use the funds raised from the listing to expand production capacity, repay bank debt and set up a representative office in Taiwan, it said.
The company, which renamed itself Dukang Distillers from Trump Dragon Distillers Holdings after an acquisition of Luoyang Dukang Holdings Ltd in May, owns two major brands — Dukang and Siwu.
It produces 36,000 tonnes of the Siwu-branded liquor and 81,650 tonnes of the Dukang-branded liquor every year.
Dukang has appointed Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券) as a financial adviser for the TDR listing.
Meanwhle, Ziwo Holdings (至和控股), a China-based foam material producer, has also filed an application with TWSE to trade TDRs on the main board, Polaris said.
Ziwo, the largest producer of styrene butadiene rubber, other foam materials and 30D terylene filament yarn in China, plans to issue 71 million TDRs, with each depositary receipt representing 1.25 of the company’s common shares, the underwriter said.
Ziwo has been listed in -Singapore since October last year.
Its products mainly serve as environmentally friendly raw materials for consumer products, furniture upholstery and automobile linings, and are also used in the aviation, military and high-tech sectors, the underwriter said.
The foam maker ships its products to more than 500 customers across China.
In the first three quarters of this year, Ziwo posted net income of 86 million yuan (US$13 million), up 13 percent from a year earlier, while sales during the same period rose 39 percent to 360 million yuan.
Last year, the company had net income of 95 million yuan, up 65 percent from 2008.
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