Yummy Town Holdings Corp (雅茗天地集團), which operates three restaurant and bubble tea brands globally, yesterday saw its shares fall below its listing price of NT$42 on its debut on the over-the-counter GRETAI Securities Market.
The stock opened strongly at NT$43.6, but later dropped, to close down 4.76 percent, or NT$2, at NT$40 on the local bourse, compared with the GRETAI’s 0.69 percent rise, stock exchange data showed.
SLUGGISH
Despite a sluggish debut, Yummy Town chairman Albert Wu (吳伯超) expressed optimism over the company’s sales performance for next year, targeting growth of 20 to 30 percent from this year.
Yummy Town Holdings currently operates more than 602 restaurants and tea houses globally under three brands — R.B.T. Tea Cafe, Happy Lemon (快樂檸檬) and RBTea — with most of the outlets in China.
OVERSEAS LAUNCH
“We aim to open 20 new Heppy Lemon outlets in Taiwan next year, with a plan to launch overseas outlets in New York and London,” Wu told a media briefing.
The company is set to expand its total number of outlets worldwide to 1,200 by the end of 2016, while opening more Happy Lemon outlets in overseas markets and introducing new brands in China, Wu said.
SALES UP
Consolidated sales totaled NT$1.39 billion (US$43.72 million) in the first 11 months of the year, up 1.88 percent from the same period last year, statistics showed.
The company reported net profit of NT$51.12 million, or NT$2.14 per share, in the first three quarters of the year, data showed. For the whole of last year, profit was NT$69.08 million, or NT$3.07 per share.
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