TAIWAN’s TS LINES late last week completed an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, at its third attempt.
Previous IPOs had been pulled due to unfavourable conditions but Thursday’s [31 October] listing proved successful, raising HKD 491 million (USD 121 million). The original target was USD 145 million.
The company, founded in 2001 by Chen Te-sheng of the family behind Wan Hai Lines also of Taiwan, floated almost 251 million shares at HKD 3.50 to HKD 4.50 apiece, of which 10% were offered publicly in Hong Kong and 90% to international investors. The final offer price was HKD 4.18 (USD 0.54) per share and subscribed 12.09 times by HK investors, while the international offering was subscribed 2.22 times.
TSL plans to put the funds raised towards financing two 7000 TEU vessels ordered from Chinese yards, as well as chartered vessels for service expansion and new containers.
TSL first began Australian coverage in 2010 and now operates within two consortium services, CAT and CA2, each with two vessels. A sister of the 7000 TEU vessels, newbuilding TS Hong Kong, is due on the Australian coast this week on its maiden voyage.
The company has proven particularly ‘agile’ in recent years having originally operated exclusively in inter-Asia trades but expanding to long-haul routes and shifting tonnage around to take advantage of trade-lane circumstances. At one stage during the COVID years TSL had four separate strings covering Australia and NZ from China and South East Asia
In recent months TSL has again been nimble, scheduling what has now become seven extra-loaders 1900-2900 TEU between China and East Coast Australia. The line is represented in Australia by Seaway Agencies.
