First foreign listing likely delayed to June

Korea Herald Feb. 21, 2007

First foreign listing likely delayed to June

The listing of the local stock exchange’s first foreign company will likely be in June at the earliest, the Korea Exchange said yesterday.

Huafeng Textile International Group, which is already listed in Hong Kong, filed an application in December for a secondary floatation on Korea’s main bourse. Lee Young-tak, chairman and CEO of Korea Exchange, said in January that he expected the firm to be listed as early as March.
“The application is still under review. Any decision will likely be made late next month,” said an official at the KRX.

Given that the listing process usually takes two to three months, the much-anticipated debut of a foreign firm on the local stock market is likely in June at the earliest, KRX officials said.
Huafeng Textile is a middle-sized fabric processor based in Shishi city in China’s Fujian province, with a market capitalization of HK$8.8 million, or about 1 billion won ($1.1 million).
It reported 80 billion won in revenues and 10 billion won in net earnings last year.
The KRX has been trying to attract foreign companies and conducted 15 promotional tours overseas.

According to industry insiders, a dozen foreign firms are expected to knock on the doors of the Seoul bourses soon. Eleven more Chinese firms and a U.S. firm are said to have signed underwriting contracts with local brokerage houses to prepare for a listing on Korea’s stock markets.

Among them, 3NOD Electronics Co., a Shenzhen-based manufacturer of multimedia speaker systems, is likely to be the first to be listed on the tech-loaded Kosdaq exchange.
“We expect the firm to apply for the floatation sometime in May,” a KRX official said.
(milaya@heraldm.com)
By Lee Sun-young

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SeanHayes@ipglegal.com

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