Royole cop, the Chinese flexible display company is said to be weighing an initial public offering (IPO) in China even though it’s planned listing in the US is being put on hold.
A source close to the company made it known that Royole which had filed confidentiality for a U.S. IPO which could help it raise US$1 billion is now being put to hold as the company looks elsewhere according to report gotten by Bloomberg.
While the considerations are still at the early stage with no final decisions taken just yet according to the source, a representative for Royole had declined to make any comment on the IPO matter when asked about the situation.
If you remember the first commercially available folding smartphone, the Royole FlexPai released back in 2018, the company had planned to initially raise funds through private financial financing round at a valuation of about US$8 billion according to those who were closer to the deal last year.
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But the Chinese company turned to the U.S. markets after liquidity tightened during a downturn in China’s venture capital sector, the people said.
Back in January, the relationship between China and the U.S. has deteriorated sporadically raising tensions over trade war, technology and the Hong Kong protest as well. This has caused many U.S.-listed Chinese companies to be considering second listings closer to their home countries in Hong Kong but China on the other way had been trying to bring in companies to list in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Samsung and BOE Technology Group Co. are two of the biggest Royole’s competitors in the bendable display industry using the amazing Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) technology. The company, which gave away wraparound-screen hats at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, in January unveiled a smart speaker that packs a bendable display around a cylinder.
Royole is popular in the screen industry even though it’s first attempt to break into the smartphone industry failed due to the bad Royole FlexPai back then which ultimately gave Samsung the go-ahead with it’s Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Z flip smartphones both which were successful and sold out worldwide.
Royole on the other hand excels in devices such as Head-mounted display devices which are also called mobile theaters as well as other wearable devices as well as other smart writing pad that it sells on Amazon.com, JD.com and in stores globally.
Royole’s earlier investors include Knight Capital, IDG Capital, Poly Capital Management, AMTD Group, the funds of Chinese tycoon Xie Zhikun and the venture capital arm of the Shenzhen city government.