La Kaffa International Co (六角國際), which owns bubble tea brand Chatime (日出茶太) and has extended its reach to Australia, is planning to list shares of its subsidiary on the Australian stock market in the third quarter of next year.
La Kaffa chairman Henry Wang (王耀輝) on Thursday said that subsidiary Infinite Plus Pty Ltd, in which La Kaffa has a 55 percent stake, will file an application to list with Australian securities authorities by the end of the second quarter next year.
Chatime, which was founded by Wang in 2005, has been in the Australian market since 2009 and with sales on the rise, he said that the unit is looking to raise funds to finance growth.
If the listing plan proceeds as expected, La Kaffa will become the first food and beverage enterprise owned by a Taiwanese to launch a stock listing in Australia.
So far this year, Chatime has added 31 new outlets in Australia, bringing its number of outlets there to 100.
About 70 percent of its Australian stores are in department stores, shopping malls or at tourist attractions, and 90 percent of the outlets are run under franchising contracts, while 10 percent are directly owned by Infinite Plus.
Infinite Plus managing director Chao Chen (趙晨) said that the number of Chatime outlets in Australia is expected to increase to 109 this year and 149 next year.
The number would expand to 200 by the end of 2021 and 250 in the longer term, Chao said.
Infinite Plus had consolidated sales of about NT$530 million (US$17.18 million) last year, up 20 percent from a year earlier, the company said.
In the first nine months of this year, consolidated sales totaled NT$420 million and the figure should reach NT$600 million for the full year, which would be up more than 13 percent from last year because of its growing number of outlets.
Revenue for next year is expected to grow 25 percent to about NT$780 million, it said.
Wang said La Kaffa in July set up a second logistics center in Melbourne, Australia, to supplement its first in Sydney and help Chatime cut delivery times and operating costs.
Chatime has more than 700 outlets in 38 countries, including 260 in Indonesia, more than 70 in the Philippines and 39 in Malaysia, making Southeast Asia one of the brand’s major sales drivers.
It expects to add another 120 to 150 stores in the three nations next year.
The company also plans to use Australia as a base to expand its business in New Zealand, where it has four outlets and expects to increase its network to 30 stores by the end of 2021.
Chatime in July opened a store outside the Louvre, one of the most popular tourist attractions in France, as part of efforts to expand its global presence.
La Kaffa posted earnings per share of NT$3 for the first nine months of the year, compared with NT$3.43 in the same period last year.
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