TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), a supplier of touch-screens for Apple Inc’s iPhone and iPad tablet computer, has raised US$200 million from its initial public offering (IPO), the largest in Taiwan this year.
Proceeds from the IPO will be used to expand the capacities of TPK’s assembly lines in China to meet rapidly growing world demand, TPK chief financial officer Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) said at a news conference yesterday ahead of the firm’s debut today on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company priced its IPO at NT$220 per share, at the top of its NT$200 to NT$220 range. The debut will make TPK the second foreign company to launch a primary listing on the local bourse after US-based IC designer Integrated Memory Logic Inc debuted in May.
TPK yesterday reported a third-quarter net income of NT$1.13 billion (US$36.8 million), up 56.94 percent year-on-year and 9 percent quarter-on-quarter, with NT$5.64 in earnings per share.
Third-quarter revenue grew 231 percent to NT$17.21 billion from a year ago and was 64 percent higher than the previous quarter, the company said. Gross margin, however, fell to 14.3 percent in the third quarter from 23.7 percent in the previous three months.
In the first three quarters, net income totaled NT$2.58 billion, up 67 percent year-on-year, with NT$12.85 in earnings per share. Revenue reached NT$32.8 billion, up 145 percent over the same period last year, company data showed.
Looking ahead, TPK chairman Michael Chiang (江朝瑞) said that global demand for touch-screens would outpace supply for the next two years. As growth momentum will continue in the fourth quarter, Chiang expects the company’s gross margin to rise in the fourth quarter from 14.3 percent in the third quarter.
Chiang said the company’s monthly capacity of 10-inch glass-based touch-screens will rise to 3 million by June next year from the current 1.2 million.
Its 3.5-inch glass and film-based touch-screens will rise to 10 million and 3 million respectively, from the current volumes of 7 million and 1.2 million, he said.
TPK, founded in 2003, operates factories in Xiamen, Fujian Province, and maintains its research and development facilities in Taiwan. The company’s touch-screen business took off after Apple launched its iPhone in 2007 and expanded further after the iPad went on sale earlier this year.
Apart from Apple, TPK also supplies touch-screens to smartphone makers, including HTC Corp (宏達電), Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics Inc, Chiang said.
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