Chateau International Development Co (夏都國際開發) said on Saturday it is scheduled to launch a listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) on March 14.
Market analysts said after shares of Star Travel Corp (燦星國際旅行社) rose more than 200 percent from its issue price on the first day of trading on the over-the-counter (OTC) market on Friday, the listing of Chateau — a resort hotel operator in Kenting — is likely to attract investors who are upbeat about the prospects of the tourism sector.
According to Chateau’s prospectus, the company, capitalized at NT$697.55 million (US$23.57 million), is planning to issue about 7.3 million new shares for the listing and has set a tentative issue price of NT$33.
Its shares will open to a public subscription between Friday and Monday next week, the hotel operator said.
The company is expected to raise more than NT$210 million from the listing and plans to use the fund as working capital, a move expected to reduce the need to seek bank loans.
Chateau has been listed as an emerging market stock on the OTC market since September 2009 and its shares closed at NT$53 on Friday.
Under securities regulations, a company has to be listed as an emerging market stock for no less than six months before it decides to go public on the main board or on the OTC market.
Chateau runs a hotel in Kenting with 293 rooms and a 2.8km private beach. The hotel’s average occupancy rate has reached 80 percent in recent years as Kenting has become one of the popular destinations in Taiwan for both local and foreign tourists, the company said.
In addition to the Kenting hotel, which was built in 1995, Chateau is planning to build hotels at other popular tourist sites. The company is in talks about expansion and market sources said it is likely to finalize two investment projects in Hualien and Tainan by the end of this year at the earliest.
Last year, Chateau posted NT$1.88 in net profit per share on sales of NT$610 million, compared with NT$2.14 recorded a year earlier.
The company said it expects its bottom line for this year will improve from a year earlier since its operations, so far this year, have performed better than the same period of last year.
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