The number of initial public offerings (IPO) would pick up this year, driven by high tech and biotechnology firms seeking to grow and upgrade by taking advantage of the local capital market, Deloitte & Touche Taiwan said yesterday.
Deloitte Taiwan’s guarded optimistic outlook came after IPOs last year totaled 45 and together raised a 10-year high of NT$37.9 billion (US$1.213 billion), at odds with a global slowdown amid lingering economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions.
“The local IPO market has a good chance of flourishing this year, helped by an economic recovery as well as regulatory easing and promotion of the Taiwan Innovation Board, a new platform clustering innovative listings,” Deloitte Taiwan CEO Jason Ke (柯志賢) told a media briefing.
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Many stock exchanges around the world have lowered listing thresholds to create funding access for innovative companies and Taiwan’s policymakers have rolled out an action plan to achieve similar ends, Ke said.
The number of IPOs could climb to 63 this year, including 24 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, 24 on the Taipei Exchange and 15 on the Taiwan Innovation Board, the consultancy’s audit and assurance business leader Titan Lee (李東峰) said.
Taiwan is home to the world’s largest suppliers of electronics used in smartphones, high-performance computing, data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
The local bourse is attractive in light of regulatory transparency and accountability, procedural ease and competitive underwriting charges, Lee said.
Price-to-earnings ratios in local shares moved up noticeably in the past few years, thanks to the rising importance of Taiwan’s chipmakers on the world stage, government officials said.
The TAIEX last year finished up 26.8 percent with capitalization on the local bourse hitting NT$56.8 trillion and it is expected to reach NT$60 trillion on the back of capital inflows despite weak exports.
Airoha Technology (達發科技), a fabless IC design company and subsidiary of MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s largest 5G smartphone chip designer, raised NT$8.9 billion upon its debut, accounting for a 24 percent share, Deloitte Taiwan said.
Tech firms might continue to dominate the IPO market this year as Taiwanese players command the world’s technology leadership positions and would actively seize business opportunities related to generative AI, Deloitte Taiwan said.
Biotechnology firms would also lend growth momentum in the IPO market, the consultancy said.
Bora Pharmaceuticals (保瑞) and Taidoc Technology Corp (泰博) last year successfully shifted their listing from the Taipei Exchange to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Deloitte Taiwan said, predicting that peers would launch similar attempts.
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