CEC Telecom Co Ltd, the fourth biggest Chinese-brand mobile phone maker, will float shares for the first time on the NASDAQ stock market by the end of this year, domestic media reported Wednesday.

 

The Beijing-based company will become the first homegrown handset maker in the world's biggest mobile phone market to list overseas.

 

Preparations for its initial public offering have been completed and CECT is set to sell shares on NASDAQ in the fourth quarter to raise at least US$120 million, and possibly US$150 million, CECT's Chairman Wu Zhiyang was quoted by Beijing News and Beijing Times.

 

CECT will invest heavily on research and third-generation mobile phone products after the IPO, according to Wu.

 

"CECT has two key words to attract investors - China and mobile phone - but it is hard to predict investors' reaction now," Sandy Shen, a Gartner analyst in Shanghai.

 

CECT estimates revenue of US$250 million and net profit of US$29 million in 2005, said a statement from Qiao Xing Universal Telephone Inc, one of China's largest makers and distributors of telecommunication products, and its parent.

 

But Li Xuefang, an analyst at CCID, doubted CECT's ability to make profit as it depends partly on license fee income. Before China relaxed its handset license policy last April, other firms paid CECT for putting its name on the products.

 

(Shanghai Daily June 8, 2006)