Popular Chinese smartphone maker Transsion Holding, is Africa’s biggest smartphone maker and has made its brand phones including Tecno, Itel and Infinix phones a household name on the continent. The company, has raised nearly $400 million in an IPO on China’s hot new tech-focused stock market.
The Shenzhen-based company said in a stock market filing Wednesday that it sold 80 million shares for $4.93 each, raising $395 million. According to CNN, the share sale pushes Transsion’s valuation to $3.95 billion and establishes the company as one of the biggest attractions on the Star Market.
Transsion said that its shares would begin trading “as soon as possible.” The company’s Itel and Infinix phones are however not popular in China and also do business in China, despite being based there. But it controls a huge part of the smartphone market in Africa.
The IPO has sparked off an avalanche among investors. Only one in 20 online bidders were allocated shares, while only three in 1,000 offline bidders were successful.
Reports indicate that the offering is on track to be the second largest for the Star Market, a board on the Shanghai stock exchange that launched in July and is viewed as part of China’s bid for tech superpower status. The initiative was unveiled less than a year ago by President Xi Jinping.
So far 30 stocks have debuted on Star, many of them from the tech and manufacturing sectors. All the stocks have surged above their IPO prices, with an average gain of 160% by Wednesday’s market close, according to Wind, a Chinese financial data provider.
Given the current drama with the Trump administration, China has encouraged its companies to become less dependent on foreign money and technology, since the Trump government blacklisted Huawei, a leading global smartphone maker and 5G network supplier.
