Biel Crystal revives Hong Kong stock offer plan as glass supplier of Apple, Samsung, Huawei raises capital for expansion
- The IPO plan is a long time coming for Biel’s founder Yeung Kin-Man, who had planned to raise up to US$2.5 billion in Hong Kong on in China
- The plan was postponed in 2018 just as Washington DC and Beijing embarked on their trade war
The Hong Kong-based company’s stock sale will be co-sponsored by JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and China International Capital Corporation (CICC), according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, without providing financial details.
The timing appears to be more fortuitous for the glass manufacturer, as Hong Kong’s first-half bank deposits ballooned by 11.5 per cent to HK$7.87 trillion (US$1.01 trillion), on the heels of two consecutive quarters of economic growth, marking the city’s recovery from the coronavirus outbreak. The jump in deposits reflected a net inflow of capital into Hong Kong in anticipation of a flurry of Chinese companies going public as they turn to the world’s fourth-largest capital market for funds.
“Investors have appetite for IPOs, depending on [whether] the company is unique,” said Louis Tse Ming-kwong, managing director of Wealthy Securities in Hong Kong.
Biel, founded by Leung in 1987, supplies the glass used in smartphone screens, smartwatches, augmented reality and virtual reality glasses and vehicles, counting Apple, Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies as among its customers. The company got the first break in when it supplied the glass to Motorola’s Razr cellular phones.
Profit grew by about 71 per cent to HK$3.16 billion in the financial year ended March, from HK$1.85 billion a year earlier, Biel said in its filing.
Worldwide shipment of smartphones grew 13.2 per cent in the second quarter to 313.2 million devices, according to research firm IDC.
Biel had originally planned to go public in 2018, but postponed the plan just as tensions began to escalate between Washington DC and Beijing, as then president Donald Trump slapped import tariffs on China, setting off a tit-for-tat trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
Yeung and his wife Lam Wai-ying are among Hong Kong’s wealthiest people, according to Forbes’ latest rankings. Their wealth rose 133 per cent to US$18.6 billion last year, making them the city’s fourth-wealthiest persons and the only ones in the top 5 whose wealth was not directly associated with property development.