The nation might see 60 initial public offerings (IPOs) this year, a significant increase from 39 last year, as the economy continues to improve and companies seek to improve their operations, Deloitte & Touche Taiwan said on Wednesday.
The international accounting firm’s forecast is more optimistic than those of the local branches of Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
“Sluggish IPO activity last year had to do with a lack of incentives, but continued rallies in global bourses help boost confidence and a recent tax reform also lends support,” Deloitte Taiwan managing partner Benjamin Shih (施景彬) told a media briefing in Taipei.
The legislature on Jan. 18 passed a sweeping tax bill that lowers the cap on personal income tax from 45 to 40 percent and allows investors two options for stock dividend income taxes: a flat 28 percent rate if they are combined with personal incomes or an 8.5 percent rate if handled separately.
That is positive for high-income earners and active traders, many of whom had fled the local stock markets, Shih said.
The recent rally in the TAIEX, above 11,110 points, confirmed the rise in confidence, he said.
Meanwhile, securities exchange authorities are seeking to launch an e-commerce board to grant start-ups easier access to capital as biotechnology firms have done in recent years, he added.
Nineteen firms have obtained regulatory approval to be listed on the nation’s bourses and many more are in the pipeline, Deloitte Taiwan said, adding that it aims to win more than 30 IPO clients this year to keep its market share at 49 percent, followed by PwC at 27 percent and KMPG at 20 percent.
Technology firms are upbeat about the business outlook this year and see new business opportunities linked to new technological innovations and applications, said Gordon Chen (陳明煇), a partner at Deloitte Taiwan focusing on technology, media and telecoms.
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