Transsion Holdings, the Chinese company behind three popular African phone brands – Tecno, Infinix and itel – has confirmed that it is going to list in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Shanghai’s STAR Market. STAR is the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s new Nasdaq-style board for tech stocks that also went live in July with some 25 companies going public.
Some months back, it was reported but it has now been confirmed.
Based in Shenzhen, it was the largest smartphone manufacturer by sales in Africa in 2017, and also sells mobile phones in South Asia.
It is estimated that the company could raise up to 3 billion yuan (or $426 million). It wants to use most of the funds (1.6 billion yuan or $227 million) to build more phone assembly hubs and around 430 million yuan ($62 million) on research and development, including a mobile phone R&D center in Shanghai.
Transsion Holdings has Research & Development centres in Nigeria and Kenya and its sales network in Africa includes retail shops in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Egypt. It also has a manufacturing plant in Ethiopia and recently expanded its presence in India.
In 2018, Transsion Holdings sold 124 million mobile phones globally. According to IDC figures for 2018, Transsion ranks 4th in global mobile phone brands and hold the largest market share in Africa.
Transsion’s brand portfolio comprises leading mobile phone brands in emerging markets, including TECNO, itel and Infinix, Carlcare for after-sales services, oraimo for smart accessories, and Syinix for home appliances.
