Published : Jan. 20, 2016 - 18:07
South Korea’s No. 2 confectionery Haitai Confectionery & Foods said Wednesday it is making preparations for an initial public offering this year.
Haitai‘s Honey Butter Chip (Yonhap)
After years of unsuccessful attempts at floating its shares, Haitai said it has signed on with two local brokerage houses to list its shares on the Seoul bourse during the first half of this year.
The IPO announcement comes after the success of the company’s honey-flavored potato chips that were first launched in August 2014. The snack -- Honey Butter Chip -- was a huge hit and spawned many copycat products throughout the industry.
Monthly sales of Honey Butter Chip were estimated at about 7.5 billion won ($6.2 million). Production capacity is expected to double when the new production line is completed in April.
Sales in the January-September period rose 18.8 percent on-year to 603.3 billion won and operating profits doubled to 45 billion won, according to Haitai’s financial statements.
(khnews@heraldcorp.com)