The 104 Job Bank (104
This will make the company, which is currently trading on the gray market, the first online human resource firm to list on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Through the IPO, 104 Job Bank will sell 3.75 million new shares at NT$95 apiece, to raise NT$37.5 million (US$1.16 million).
"For the next few years, we will aggressively seek mergers and acquisitions either locally or overseas, to improve our business portfolio," founder and chairman Rocky Yang (
The company plans to beef up its human resources solutions and promote them to enterprises of all sizes, and to help job seekers not only land jobs but with long-term career life planning, he said.
To this end, the company will expand its foothold across the Taiwan Strait in the first half of the year.
"This is the perfect time for us to enter the China market," Yang said.
Around 70 percent of Chinese enterprises are recruiting staff through newspaper ads, which was what was happening in Taiwan five years ago, he said.
This in turn presents opportunities for online recruitment portals such as 104 Job Bank, which has already garnered nearly 90 percent of the local market, he said.
104 Job Bank will set its sights on smaller portals in China for merger possibilities, as attempts to approach the top-five Chinese online job portals -- including ChinaHR.com (中華英才網) -- proved unsuccessful due to high share prices, Yang said.
Expanding into the massive Chinese market is an inevitable trend, as the company aims to offer more comprehensive recruitment services to Taiwanese job seekers who might seek careers there, Yang said.
The company will set up an office in Shanghai in April, he said, although he refused to disclose more details due to confidentiality.
To handle its expansion plans, the company will increase its staff from 460 to more than 500 this year.
Analysts appear positive about 104 Job Bank's IPO.
"Its share prices are set to increase as the stake is very concentrated. It will benefit from the new stock exchange's new mechanism, which abolishes the 7 percent daily trading limit on the share prices of listed companies for the first five days of trading," one analyst said on condition of anonymity.
104 Job Bank's earnings last year reached NT$290 million, or NT$9.69 per share, up from NT$249 million, or NT$10.68, a year ago, according to the company.
Fuhwa Securities Co (復華證券), which is in charge of the IPO, estimated that the company will post 40 percent earnings growth to reach NT$409 million this year, or NT$12.11 in earnings per share.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) halted shipments to a customer this month after its semiconductors were sent to China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為), potentially breaching US sanctions, a government official said. The US slapped sanctions on Huawei in 2019, and expanded them the following year, over fears its technology could be used for Beijing’s espionage operations. The restrictions prevent TSMC from selling semiconductors to Huawei. However, TSMC discovered on Oct. 11 that chips made for a “specific customer” had ended up with the Chinese company, a Taiwanese official with knowledge of the incident said on the condition of anonymity. TSMC “immediately activated
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
Shares of Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) surged more than 53 percent on its debut on the Taiwan stock exchange yesterday. Starlux shares closed up 53.75 percent at NT$30.75 from its initial public offering price of NT$20 after retreating in late trading from a 60 percent rise. China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) rose 0.90 percent to close at NT$22.35, while EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) gained 0.40 percent to close at NT$37.70. In Taiwan, a newly listed stock is allowed to go beyond the 10 percent maximum increase or decline in its first five trading sessions. At the listing ceremony, Starlux chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) said
RSS