Major Chinese consumer electronics and mobile-phone maker TCL Corp. nearly tripled its exports of television sets last year, the Securities Times reported Thursday.

Citing figures provided to the newspaper by TCL Corp., the report said exports of television sets by the company reached 3.83 million units last year, and this year it expects to export five million sets.

A woman looks through brochures for TCL televisions in a Beijing department store Monday, Jan. 26, 2004.  [AP]

In 2003 TCL Corp. sold 7.88 million television sets domestically, up 17.2% on year, and expects to sell 9.4 million sets this year.

It sold 9.67 million mobile phones, up 55.5% on year, and this year expects to sell 11 million. It also sold 526,857 personal computers, up 40%, and expects to sell 720,000 this year, the report said.

TCL Corp. also has a unit listed in Hong Kong, TCL International Holdings Ltd. (1070.HK), which last year signed a deal with France's Thomson S.A. to set up the world's largest television set production venture.

Separately, major securities newspapers reported the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's blue-chip index, the Shenzhen 100 Index, will include TCL Corp.

The Shenzhen 100 was launched in January last year and tracks large- capitalized, profitable and highly liquid yuan-denominated A-share companies.

TCL Corp. raised 2.51 billion yuan ($1CNY8.28) in an initial public offering earlier this month and the shares will start trading Friday. It will be included in the Shenzhen 100 Index from its second trading session, the report said.

Under the IPO, 590 million shares were issued to investors and 404.4 million issued as part of a share swap for a unit of TCL Corp. which was absorbed into the parent. That unit, TCL Communication Equipment Co. (000542.SZ), was previously listed on the Shenzhen exchange and was part of the Shenzhen 100 Index as well.

TCL Corp.'s listing will effectively be the first on the Shenzhen exchange since October 2000. The 994.4 million shares issued under the IPO represent 38.45% of the company's share capital.

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