Foxconn unit's planned public float progressing at fast pace

Foxconn Industrial Internet Co, a unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, the manufacturing giant responsible for making Apple iPhones and Amazon Fire tablets, is inching closer to listing its shares in the A-share market, thanks to the fast-track approval process for innovative industries.

In its draft prospectus, Foxconn said it plans to issue 177 million shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and use the proceeds to expand its eight major business sectors, including industrial internet platforms, cloud computing and high efficiency operation platforms. The total investment for building these business units is estimated at around 29.1 billion yuan ($4.6 billion).

According to information on the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the stock market regulator, Foxconn's IPO application will undergo further examination on Thursday.

The company submitted its draft prospectus on Feb 1. Eight days later, the CSRC sent its feedback on the prospectus and on Feb 11 it submitted a revised version. The prospectus is available on CSRC's official website among all the pre-disclosure announcements starting from Feb 22.

According to industry insiders, normally it takes companies one to two years to complete all the necessary procedures for an initial public offering, including the steps mentioned above.

The CSRC is reportedly planning a "green channel" for the so-called unicorn companies from industries like biosciences, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing. CSRC's former chief Xiao Gang said in an interview on March 2 that helping these unicorn companies go public is an important innovation concerning the approval system for issuing new shares in China.

A successful IPO of Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer for electronic devices, will set the benchmark for other companies from Taiwan Island to list in the mainland's A-share market, industry insiders said.

Founded in 2015, Foxconn holds stakes in 31 domestic companies and 29 overseas companies. Nine of these 60 companies specialize in the manufacturing of smartphone parts.

The company's draft prospectus shows that it realized an annual turnover of 272.8 billion yuan, 272.7 billion yuan and 354.5 billion yuan in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively. The company's net profit came in at 14.35 billion yuan, 14.37 billion yuan and 15.87 billion yuan respectively. The company's net profit growth rate stood at 5.26 percent, 5.27 percent and 4.48 percent for the three respective years.

The fast progress of Foxconn's IPO process also lead to a sharp increase in the share prices of several companies with business related to or similar to Foxconn on Monday. These included Shenzhen JingQuanHua Electronics, Changsha Yuhuan CNC Machine Tool, and Henan Ancai Hi-Tech. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.07 percent to close at 3,256.93 points on Monday.