Foxconn keeps legal pressure on rival BYD
Foxconn International Holdings has urged its rival BYD, which will spin off its handset business on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's main board next Thursday, to disclose more information about any possible write-off due to an ongoing intellectual property lawsuit.
Last June, Foxconn filed a lawsuit against BYD in the Intermediate People's Court in Shenzhen, claiming BYD knowingly and intentionally procured confidential data from former employees.
The court has taken some witnesses from BYD's office and appointed Beijing Jiu Zhou Shi Chu Intellectual Property Expertise Centre of Judicature, (Beijing JZSC), which is authorised by the supreme court of People's Republic of China, to run an investigation.
Foxconn said it had recently read an unreleased investigation report conducted by Beijing JZSC and found some evidence that supports its accusation against BYD.
'The report showed that over half of the documents in two of BYD's computer hard drives contain our confidential information while many of BYD's internal documents are highly identical or highly similar to ours,' said Vincent Tong Wen-xin, Foxconn's spokesperson. 'We are happy to see the conclusion of this report, which is similar to that of our own investigation.'
Mr Tong said Foxconn was going to prosecute one or two more former employees who are working for BYD. He said so far, one former employee had been jailed and two were under investigation for inappropriate use of Foxconn's information.
Last week, BYD's chairman Wang Chuan Fu said: 'Foxconn filed a lawsuit against us as they are too scared to see our strong growth.'
BYD Electronic yesterday set its offer price at HK$10.75, the low end of the proposed price range or 13.6 times the firm's earnings next year. It will raise a total of HK$5.9 billion from the initial public offering which is arranged by UBS.
The company had previously lowered the offer price by 15 per cent from the initial target of 17 to 20 times earnings because of the recent stock market volatility.
Shares in Foxconn yesterday fell 4.4 per cent to HK$18.3 while BYD's rose 1.1 per cent to HK$48.55.
