Chow Tai Fook will be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange: IPO valuation is as high as 300 billion Hong Kong dollars (VC328)

"The jewelry and gold sales industry has not been valued by people for a long time. If Chow Tai Fook is successfully listed on December 15, it will become Asia's largest carrier company in the gold and jewelry industry." Xu Lei, founder and co-president of Diamond Bird, said on November 15 .

It is understood that the Hong Kong jeweler Chow Tai Fook Jewellery & Gold Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chow Tai Fook"), a Hong Kong-based tycoon Zheng Yutong, has passed the hearing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (hereinafter referred to as the "Hong Kong Stock Exchange") last week. The pre-launch started on 14th, and the roadshow was initially scheduled to start on 28th November. It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 15th December. Earlier news said that Chow Tai Fook planned to raise funds from US $ 3.0-4.5 billion (HK $ 234-351 billion) to US $ 2.5-4.0 billion (HK $ 19.5-312 billion) in order to go public.

Goldman Sachs, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase are responsible for this Chow Tai Fook IPO arrangement, and Deutsche Bank serves as the joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner. Deutsche Bank expects that Chow Tai Fook ’s 2014 profit will be US $ 13.5 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 50%. The company ’s valuation will range from 241 billion to 302 billion Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to 26.3 to 32.9 times 2012 earnings.

If Chow Tai Fook is successfully listed, it will not only become the largest IPO in the second half of the Hong Kong IPO market, but also the world ’s largest IPO since July 2011. In addition to Chow Tai Fook, Chow Tai Sang, Diamond Bird, and Millennium Star in the gold jewelry industry also have varying degrees of listing plans.

The market valuation of up to 300 billion Hong Kong dollars is a number that surprised the industry.

For industry insiders, this valuation number is not surprising. According to an industry source who did not wish to be named, Chow Tai Fook was not satisfied with this valuation.

According to public information, Chow Tai Fook brand has been established for 84 years. It is the largest jewelry retailer in the Mainland and Hong Kong and Macao. In 2010, its market share in the Mainland was 12.6% and that in Hong Kong and Macau was 20.1%. As of the first half of 2011, Chow Tai Fook had a total of 1,506 sales outlets, of which 1417 were mainly located in the Mainland; 89 were in Hong Kong, Macau and other regions. Chow Tai Fook plans to increase the number of sales outlets to 2,000 in 2016.

Of course, Chow Tai Fook ’s core value does not stop there. According to an insider close to Chow Tai Fook, in the upstream stage, Chow Tai Fook and Chow Sang Sang obtained the license of DTC, the world ’s largest supplier of diamond blanks. Chow Tai Fook has also become a selected diamond dealer of Rio Tinto Diamonds, a Rio Tinto Group subsidiary of the international mining giant Rio Tinto Group. This gives Chow Tai Fook a special advantage in raw materials.

In sales, Chow Tai Fook is mostly self-operated stores, with franchise stores accounting for only 35%. In addition, due to the joint pricing strategy of the six major gold sales agents in Hong Kong, Chow Tai Fook's gross profit margin on gold sales is as high as 25%, which is much higher than the gross profit margins of Chinese mainland Caibai Gold and Laomiao Gold brands.

A gold jewellery industry source revealed that Chow Tai Fook's net profit for 2010 was over 3 billion yuan. Due to inflation and other reasons, the gold and jewellery sales industry has a natural growth rate of 30% to 35% each year. In addition to the global economic slowdown in 2011, the gold and jewellery sales industry grew by more than 40% in the first half of 2011. Chow Tai Fook has always been a leader in the industry, so the growth rate exceeds 50%. The person predicted that Chow Tai Fook's 2011 full-year net profit will exceed 5 billion.

According to the above sources close to Chow Tai Fook, if Chow Tai Fook can be successfully listed, on the one hand, it will continue to exert its strength in the raw material link, lay out the raw material market, and have more rights to speak with raw materials; on the other hand, it will accelerate the expansion of sales terminals. It is planned to add 100 stores every year for the next 10 years. In addition, Chow Tai Fook also wants to continue to exert efforts in expanding product lines, including diamonds, jade, gems and watches. This may continue to widen the gap with the industry's second place.

Although there are still certain problems in China's gold jewelry industry, such as the industry's industrialization and refinement are not high, fashion and design capabilities are not strong, family companies account for a large proportion, but overall, the industry is optimistic about the future. According to Xu Lei's analysis, the high valuation of Chow Tai Fook benefited from a promising outlook for China's future economy and luxury industry in China. Chen Shichang, director of Chow Tai Fook and general manager of China, said: "The biggest advantage of Chow Tai Fook lies in brands and talents.