Grand Ocean Department Store Group Co (大洋百貨) is planning to raise NT$3.22 billion (US$109 million) in its initial public offering (IPO) in Taipei next month and it plans to use the proceeds to open more stores in China.
The China-based retailer, with a majority stake owned by Taiwan’s First Steamship Co (益航), plans to issue 23 million new shares on its Taiwanese debut and it is expected to tentatively price its IPO at NT$140, Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) said yesterday.
The local brokerage is acting as the sole underwriter of the IPO.
Grand Ocean has opened 18 stores in 14 Chinese cities and it is planning to open its 19th store in Hefei, Anhui Province, soon, Grand Ocean president and chairman Yan Siwen (顏思文) said at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
The department store chain plans to grow from 18 stores to 50 stores in 10 years and expand its proportion of self-owned stores from 21 percent to 40 percent in three to five years, Yan said.
The company expects that new developments will be focused on second and third-tier cities to avoid direct competition with bigger competitors, he added.
In the first quarter, Grand Ocean reported a net income of NT$350 million, or earnings per share of NT$1.92, up 22.1 percent from a year earlier.
Revenue was NT$7.74 billion in the first quarter, up 21.89 percent year-on-year, it said.
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day