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Biel Crystal revives Hong Kong stock offer plan as glass supplier of Apple, Samsung, Huawei raises capital for expansion

  • The IPO plan is a long time coming for Biel’s founder Yeung Kin-Man, who had planned to raise up to US$2.5 billion in Hong Kong on in China
  • The plan was postponed in 2018 just as Washington DC and Beijing embarked on their trade war

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A Motorola Razr V3c mobile phone that features a glass screen made by Biel Crystal, at the 3G World Congress & Exhibition 2005 at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on 17 November 2005. Photo: SCMP
Cheryl Arcibal
Biel Crystal Holdings Limited, the world’s largest maker of smartphone screens, said it applied to raise capital in Hong Kong, reviving the initial public offering (IPO) that was scuttled three years ago amid the escalating trade war between the United States and China.
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The Hong Kong-based company’s stock sale will be co-sponsored by JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and China International Capital Corporation (CICC), according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, without providing financial details.

The IPO plan is a long time coming for Biel’s founder Yeung Kin-man, who had planned to raise between US$2 billion and US$2.5 billion either in Hong Kong on mainland China. While the company did not need to raise capital, a stock market listing would boost its profile, Yeung said in an interview last year with the South China Morning Post.

The timing appears to be more fortuitous for the glass manufacturer, as Hong Kong’s first-half bank deposits ballooned by 11.5 per cent to HK$7.87 trillion (US$1.01 trillion), on the heels of two consecutive quarters of economic growth, marking the city’s recovery from the coronavirus outbreak. The jump in deposits reflected a net inflow of capital into Hong Kong in anticipation of a flurry of Chinese companies going public as they turn to the world’s fourth-largest capital market for funds.

“Investors have appetite for IPOs, depending on [whether] the company is unique,” said Louis Tse Ming-kwong, managing director of Wealthy Securities in Hong Kong.

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Biel, founded by Leung in 1987, supplies the glass used in smartphone screens, smartwatches, augmented reality and virtual reality glasses and vehicles, counting Apple, Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies as among its customers. The company got the first break in when it supplied the glass to Motorola’s Razr cellular phones.

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