TECNO phone maker targets $4 billion valuation as China green lights listing

Transsion, the manufacturer of dominant smartphone brands Tecno, Infinix and itel is on the verge of becoming the second most valuable technology company in Africa after MTN Group as it receives the preliminary green light to list shares on the Chinese Stock Exchange, on Friday.

When it is eventually approved, the listing and a planned initial public offering (IPO) could push Transsion market value to above a $4 billion and put it miles ahead of technology companies like Jumia which listed its shares on the New York Stock exchange recently.

Although the Shenzhen-based company has never sold a single phone in China but dominates the smartphone market in Africa, the planned listing

is seen as a response to a directive from Chinese President Xi to create a new equity bourse specifically to allow Chinese tech companies to raise capital locally, providing an alternative to stock exchanges in the global West. The new equity bourse known as the Star Market is expected to help tech companies from different stages raise funding from a less stringent process.

Since it was announced in November, the President Xi directive has led to the launch of a Science and Technology board earlier in 2019 and has received applications from 122 companies, according to data from Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Transsion’s successful has largely been driven by exclusive focus on making very cheap mobile devices for African and South Asian markets. Transsion expansion mission has led to it controlling over 45 per cent of the mobile industry in Africa’s six major countries with cumulative sales volume reaching over 246 million DUAL-SIM handsets.

The smartphone components of TECNO, Infinix, and itel are assembled, tested and completed in a big factory located in Addis Ababa. The factory currently houses 1,600 employees and has a production capacity of a million phones per month.

The company’s diversified portfolio includes Carlcare for after- sales services, Oraimo for mobile accessories and Syinix for home appliance. Transsion also owns Afmobi, a mobile internet company which houses a quick search website www. af1234.com, a news portal site www. helloaf. com, an app store Palmplay and an instant messaging platform Palmchat with over 140 million registered users.