Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, filed for an initial public offering of its cable and connector unit in Hong Kong, the Wall Street Journal reported. The paper cited people familiar with the matter as saying the spin-off operation could raise between USD 500 million - USD 1 billion.
Foxconn assembles most of Apple's iPhones and the unit in question, Foxconn Interconnect Technology, makes high-speed data transfer equipment and is well placed to take advantage of the burgeoning cloud-computing market.
A previous plan to float the interconnect business on the Taiwan bourse was announced in June 2013 but didn't go ahead and the presence of other tech component companies has made Hong Kong a more attractive bet, according to the Journal.
One of the paper's sources said the listing is likely to happen in the third or fourth quarter of 2016 and that it was unclear whether Foxconn would maintain majority control.
A spokesperson for Foxconn didn't respond to the Journal's request for comment.
Foxconn Interconnect Technology ranked number one in sales among connector makers in Greater China in 2015, with an 11.7 percent share of the market, and number five in the world with a 4.2 percent share, according to Frost & Sullivan, a business consulting company.
The company’s electronic connectors and cables are used in computers, consumer electronics and automobiles. It has factories across the globe from Taiwan to Mexico.
