Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) is to list its data center and broadband leasing subsidiary today, marking the second initial public offering (IPO) by the nation’s largest telecom on the local stock market.
It is part of Chunghwa Telecom’s broader plan to debut the shares of its subsidiaries to fund their growth.
Chief Telecom Co (是方電訊), in which Chunghwa Telecom has an about 69 percent stake, is to be listed on the Emerging Stock Market today at NT$85 per share.
The IPO follows the debut of Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co Ltd (CHPT, 中華精測) shares on the Taipei Exchange in March last year.
CHPT, an advanced wafer probing service, has seen its share price surge by 2.8 times from its listing price of NT$360 to close at NT$1,365 yesterday.
“Chief Telecom’s listing on the Emerging Stock Market indicates that the company is entering a new phase after making good progress,” Chunghwa Telecom chairman David Cheng (鄭優) said in a company statement released yesterday.
Chief Telecom’s net profit last year grew about 23 percent year-on-year to NT$382 million (US$12.59 million), compared with a net profit of NT$258 million in 2015.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$5.29, up from NT$4.31 in 2015.
Gross margin last year rose to 31.75 percent, compared with 30.2 percent the previous year.
The company is paying a cash dividend of NT$4.5 per share this year, from NT$3.8 per share last year.
Revenue last year increased 14 percent to NT$1.98 billion, compared with NT$1.74 billion in 2015, the Chief Telecom prospectus showed.
Chief Telecom generated more than 54 percent of its revenue from offering virtual private networks and leasing broadband bandwidth to enterprises, while 27 percent came from its data center leasing business.
New cloud-computing services accounted for 3.5 percent of the company’s revenue.
Chief Telecom won a license from China’s regulator last year to offer virtual private network and Internet service provider services in Shanghai via its Chinese subsidiary, paving the way for the firm to win a national license.
Chief Telecom has an initial capital of NT$600 million, the prospectus showed.
Yuanta Securities Co (元太證券) and CTBC Securities Co (中國信託證券) are underwriting the Chief Telecom IPO.
Chunghwa Telecom earlier this year said it also plans to list its optoelectronics subsidiary, Chunghwa Leading Photonics Tech Co Ltd (中華立鼎), on the Taipei Exchange in 2019 at the earliest.
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