African Smartphone King Transsion Raises $393 Million in Chinese IPO
On September 30, Transsion, known as the “king of mobile phones in Africa”, raised nearly $4 billion in an IPO on Shanghai’s Star Market.
The Shenzhen-based company said in a stock market filing that it sold 80 million shares for 35.15 yuan ($4.94) each, raising 2.8 billion yuan ($393 million). According to CNN, the share sale pushes Transsion’s valuation to $3.95 billion and establishes the company as one of the biggest attractions on the Star Market, China’s new tech focused stock market.
SEE ALSO: Transsion Seeking to Go Public on a Technology Innovation Board
Transsion has announced that it plans to spend the funds on building more phone assembly hubs and a mobile phone R&D center in Shanghai.
On September 29, it was reported that Transsion was sued by Huawei for copyright infringement. Although the incident occured before the listing, the setback had little visible effect on it. Transsion’s Chairman doesn’t seem worried about the lawsuit and said, “I believe that the court will have a fair response.”
Transsion is the fourth largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. In 2018, the company sold 124 million phones with Africa as their main operating market. IDC statistics show that Transsion holds a market share of 48.71% in the region.
