2010-08-26 17:17

The Taiwan Stock Exchange said a mainland-owned company will sell shares in the island for the first time next month, paving the way for mainland stock listings and underscoring improving ties between the mainland and the island.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings Ltd, the Chinese mainland's fourth-biggest shipbuilder whose shares are traded in Singapore, may raise as much as NT$4.56 billion ($143 million) from listing Taiwan depositary shares (TDRs), according to its main underwriter SinoPac Securities Co. The price range of the offering is between NT$17 and NT$19 for 240 million TDRs and the securities will be sold from today until Tuesday, according to SinoPac.

"This is definitely a milestone for Taiwan," Stanley Chu, a spokesman at the Taiwan Stock Exchange, told Bloomberg by phone in Taipei. "Our next step is to get red chips to list in Taiwan. Hopefully that will happen by the end of the year." Red chips are mainland companies incorporated overseas and traded in Hong Kong.

"Mainland companies listing in Taiwan makes it convenient for local investors who like mainland companies," said Alan Ho, who helps oversee NT$460 million for Union Securities Investment Trust Co's Union China Fund. "This also shows the closer relations both sides are having."