China Communications Media Group Co Ltd (CCMG, 中國通訊), which runs app stores for handset users to download Android apps in China, said yesterday that it plans to trade its shares on Taiwan’s over-the-counter market next month.
The company did not disclose its debut price. Its shares closed down 2.9 percent at NT$340 at the GRETAI market yesterday.
HIGHER 4G PENETRATION
“We look forward to achieving higher sales growth in the next three to five years, as more Chinese smartphone users migrate to 4G networks,” CCMG chairman Albert Lam (林維鈞) told investors in an earnings conference.
“The faster wireless Internet access, the better for our businesses because that will increase smartphone owners’ stickiness to their devices and apps provided by us,” he added.
CAYMAN ISLANDS
Founded in 2007 and registered in the Cayman Islands with NT$190 million (US$6.36 million) in capital, CCMG began to run app stores that sell Android-based apps soon after Google shut down its search engine and Google Play app store in China over censorship concerns in 2010.
Lam said CCMG in the early days served sales channels for app developers to sell their products that were designed exclusively for Nokia Oyj’s Symbian or Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating systems.
However, with users of feature phones decreasing, the company shifted its focus to the Android ecosystem and now operates app stores that host more than 8,000 Android apps for smartphone users to download, Lam said.
160 MILLION DOWNLOADS
CCMG has so far encouraged more than 160 million Android smartphone users to download apps from the company’s own “app engine,” Lam said, citing it as one of China’s largest app store operators at a market share of 12.8 percent.
The Shenzhen City-headquartered CCMG also pre-installs apps in smartphones to be sold by telecom companies in a bid to help app developers expand their sales channels and publicity, the company said, adding that more than 18 million smartphones with built-in apps by CCMG’s clients are activated in China on a monthly basis.
Lam said there are about 200 to 300 Chinese companies that are involved in the same kind of business as CCMG because the smartphone market has been growing at a rapid pace over the past five years.
Citing studies by Beijing-based consultant firm iResearch that growth rate of smartphone shipments to China was estimated to stay above 8 percent through 2016, Lam said CCMG aims to grow its built-in app market share to 15 percent this year from the current 6 percent.
POSSIBLE MERGERS
He said the company is not ruling out the possibility of mergers or acquisitions in a bid to strengthen its presence in the market.
Supported by an expansion in client base and their apps’ download counts, CCMG reported its annual net profits increased 32.38 percent to NT$208 million last year from NT$157 million in 2012, with earnings per share of NT$10.89.
ANNUAL MEETING
The company held its general annual meeting on Thursday, in which shareholders agreed CCMG’s proposal to distribute NT$8 in stock dividend and NT$0.89 in cash dividend per share on earnings last year.
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