Taiwan Steel Union Co Ltd (鋼聯), which manufactures and sells zinc oxide, yesterday said in a filing that it has set its initial public offering (IPO) price at NT$86 per share.
That would give the company a valuation of NT$974 million (US$32.96 million) when it makes its debut on the main board by the end of this month, given its issuance of nearly 11.33 million new shares, company data showed.
The company has issued 7.7 million shares by auction and 1.93 million shares by public offering, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
The IPO shares by auction were successfully traded yesterday, with the highest winning bid of NT$119.6 per share, the TWSE said, adding that the subscription period for the public is to start tomorrow and run through Monday next week.
DUST RECYCLING GIANT
Taiwan Steel Union, a joint venture founded in 1995 by the nation’s 12 steelmakers, collects valuable zinc in electric arc furnace (EAF) dust generated by steel manufacturing processes.
Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corp (東和鋼鐵) is the biggest stakeholder in Taiwan Steel Union with a 24.84 percent share, while Feng Hsin Steel Co (豐興鋼鐵) ranks second with a 22.01 percent stake.
Asia’s largest EAF dust recycling company, Changhua County-based Taiwan Steel Union is capable of processing 198,900 tonnes of EAF dust per year through its two sets of equipment.
RISING PROFIT
In the first three quarters of last year, Taiwan Steel Union’s net profit jumped 59.5 percent year-on-year from NT$301.63 million to NT$481.2 million, with earnings per share rising to NT$4.81, compared with NT$3.02 a year earlier, company data showed.
Sales over the period increased 25.35 percent annually from NT$1 billion to NT$1.25 billion, while gross margin rose 7.45 percentage points to 59.41 percent, the data showed.
The company attributed the significant improvement of its bottom line to a nearly 20 percent annual increase in global zinc prices last year, which caused a broadening spread between revenue and costs.
‘GREEN’ OPPORTUNITIES
At a pre-IPO presentation last month, company officials provided a bright outlook for the company’s operations over the next few years, as it has been developing other “green” businesses to sustain growth.
Taiwan Steel Union would continue to explore opportunities in the growing markets of industrial waste recycling, including heavy metal-contaminated soil and steelmaking slag, said chairman Mark Lin (林明儒), who is also the owner of Feng Hsin.
A new NT$1.7 billion plant to recycle steelmaking slag is scheduled to begin operations in the fourth quarter of this year, Taiwan Steel Union said.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
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