Chinese educational-technology company to enter Aussie share market

SYDNEY - Chinese educational-technology firm, ReTech, looks to the Australian Securities Exchange index with an initial public offering set for March.

Seeking A$22.5 million ($17.2 million) to make the listing a reality, the figure would represent 20 percent of the group's A$112 million($86 million) value.

The Shanghai-based company operates by digitizing training material for organizations across China and is contracted by State-owned groups like Ping An Insurance and Bank of China.

ReTech has also modernized training programs for multinationals like McDonalds, Mercedes Benz and Sephora.

"We can gamify it, build quizzes around it or even make it teachable through a virtual reality headset," ReTech co-chair Calvin Cheng told The Australian Financial Review.

"It's very expensive sending trainers to address large workforces all over China. We can build a cartoon character to deliver the syllabus online and replace them all."

ReTech plans to license course material for Australian colleges and already has a deal in place with Queensland TAFE to begin remodeling food handling and mining safety courses for Chinese workers, once its listing goes ahead.

"One of the reasons we're listing in Australia is its great reputation for education and training. We intend to do more collaborations with content producers here," Cheng said.

The major consideration for targeting the Australian market concerns regulation within China.

ReTech has 30 percent or more of its shareholders based outside China, making it ineligible for the Chinese exchange.

"We're a tad small for Hong Kong, so the best option outside that in terms of liquidity and P/E ratios turned out to be the ASX," Cheng said.

Chinese companies do face higher costs to join the list however and their prospectus discloses are expected to cost around A$3.6 million ($2.76 million).