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Sophie Yu

World Wide Touch Technology, a provider of capacitive touchpads for notebook computers and consumer electronics, will restart its public offering bid to raise up to HK$904 million after scrapping a listing plan in June.
The company planned to issue 861 million shares at an offer price of between 85 HK cents  and HK$1.05 each.
The indicative price is about 35  per cent lower than five months ago when World Wide Touch  planned a H-share offering priced at  HK$1.30 to  HK$1.70 each.
The company had hoped to raise as much as HK$1.4 billion at that time. 
However, the plan was postponed  because of stock market volatility. The Hang Seng Index has now climbed to 23,249.8 points  from  below 20,000 then.
Kelvin Wong Kwok-Fong, chairman and chief executive,  said  a positive reaction from  investors had convinced him that this was the time to  proceed.
'I am sure that at the current offer price we will get enough proceeds to support future development.'
Chief financial officer Victor Cheung said that as the funds  would be spent over the next five years, the offering's smaller size  would have no obvious impact on the company's near-term development.
Wong said a diversified products line would help improve  the company's profitability. World Wide Touch  will maintain its focus on capacitive touch products, while expanding into non-touch products, lighting source products and wireless charging devices.
The net proceeds from the listing will be  about HK$600 million, assuming a mid-point offer price of 95 HK cents.
World Wide Touch  will pump HK$200 million into capital expenditure to  buy and upgrade  production and testing equipment.  About 26 per cent of the  proceeds will be spent on research and development of capacitive touch screen products.
Wong said  the company had been investing no more than HK$15 million - 3 to 5 per cent of the company's revenue - annually in research and development. 
Some of the proceeds  will be kept in  reserve for potential  technology acquisitions  or for co-operation with other  parties.
The remainder of the  funds will be  divided between the reserves for future acquisition, plant building  in the next three years, and general working capital.
The mainland-based company has  more than 50 per cent  of the global market for touch screens and touch panels by volume. 
Interface solutions provider Synaptics is World Wide Touch's  biggest customer.  In 2007, Synaptics contributed 90 per cent of the company's total business.  The percentage has dropped to 57 per cent this year.
World Wide Touch's  net profit in the first half of this year  was HK$104 million against  HK$30 million a year earlier. Revenue for the  first half of the  year was  HK$669 million against  HK$888 million for all of last year.
The shares are expected to list in Hong Kong on December 15.
Time now right
World Wide Touch postponed an earlier listing plan in June 
The amount World Wide Touch had hoped to raise in a planned listing in June, in HK dollars: $1.4b
The percentage of revenue that customer Synpatics contributed in 2007 to World Wide Touch: 90%



World Wide Touch upbeat on offer despite cutting target hopes