Eson Precision Industry Co (乙盛精密工業), a China-based Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) subsidiary, is scheduled to launch a primary listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) on Nov. 25, underwriter Concord Securities Co (康和證券) said on Wednesday.
The listing is part of a plan by Hon Hai to transform into a holding company by pushing its subsidiaries to list their shares on the stock market.
Concord Securities said Eson is planning to issue 19.11 million new shares for the listing with an indicative price range set at NT$34 to NT$38.
Eson, an electronics component maker, was founded in 1987 and specializes in producing components for televisions, as well as a wide range of molds for communications and computer consumer electronics device production.
In 2009, Hon Hai acquired an almost 29 percent stake in Eson, making it the largest institutional shareholder of the firm. Market analysts said Eson has played an important role in Hon Hai’s efforts in developing large-screen TVs.
Eson, which was incorporated in the Cayman Islands, is capitalized at NT$1.72 billion (US$58.4 million). The firm has nine complexes located in China, Mexico, Europe and Southeast Asia.
In the first half of this year, TV components accounted for 67.55 percent of Eson’s total sales.
Eson chairman Tai Cheng-wu (戴正吳), who also serves as a vice president of Hon Hai, said that Eson will upgrade its production processes and secure orders from new customers, and he predicted that sales for this year will hit NT$10 billion.
Eson is planning to enter the market with other home appliances and seek opportunities in the auto and medical care areas, he said.
In the first half of this year, Eson posted NT$178 million in net profit, or NT$1.17 earnings per share (EPS), after its consolidated sales grew about 50 percent from a year earlier to NT$4.2 billion.
Last year, Eson’s net profit rose to NT$234.99 million, or NT$1.63 per share, from NT$204.44 million in net profit, or NT$1.02 in EPS the previous year.
The TWSE announced on May 31 that Eson had filed an application to launch a listing to raise about NT$668.7 million from the share sale.
At the time, Eson said it would use the funds as working capital for future expansion and to strengthen its financial structure.
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