Apple's iPhone smartphones sit on display.
Biel Crystal Holdings, one of the world’s largest suppliers of cover glass for smartphones, has filed draft documents for an initial public offering in Hong Kong.
Biel Crystal did not disclose further details of the IPO in its filing to the city’s stock exchange on Friday, although various reports say the company is planning to raise about $2 billion. The Hong Kong-based firm declined a request for comment.
Biel Crystal is owned by its founder Yeung Kin-man and his wife, Lam Wai-ying, who had a combined net worth of $18.6 billion in February when the Hong Kong Rich List was published.
The company had postponed a plan to list in Hong Kong in 2018 that would have raised $1.5 billion due to market volatility triggered by the escalating trade war between China and the U.S., the South China Morning Post newspaper reported at the time.
Yeung Kin-man (right) and Lam Wai-ying (middle) accept a gift from City University of Hong Kong ... [+]
Biel Crystal said its net profit surged 70.8% to almost HK$3.2 billion ($406 million) for the year ended March. The company’s revenue for the same period was about HK$30 billion, up 8.9% from the previous year.
The company said its revenue was negatively impacted by customers who did not resume full operations after Chinese New Year causing delays in product inspections and deliveries. Biel Crystal also said that although the pandemic had boosted demand for smart devices as so people had to work and study from home, this was partially offset by weakened consumer sentiment and the closure of retail outlets.
Biel Crystal’s filing also highlighted that its business could be adversely affected by trade barriers. “The ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China has intensified their tension in international relations,” the company said in its filing. “We cannot predict how the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China will further evolve, or anticipate the potential impact that any subsequent development in such relationship may have on our business.”
Biel Crystal was established by Yeung Kin-man, 68, in the Chinese city of Shenzhen to manufacture glass covers for mechanical watches in 1989. The firm says it was actually one of the first manufacturers to begin producing glass screens for mobile devices in the early 2000s when phones were still using plastic. Biel Crystal now supplies parts for smartphones, tablets and wearables to Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo and others.
