China’s top PC manufacturer Legend Holdings is to emulate rival Stone Group by taking advantage of the new government regulations covering firms located in China’s answer to Silicon Valley, Zhongguancun, and transferring stock to employees. Many of the other state-owned IT companies in the high-tech zone are expected to follow suit.
Legend’s chairman and co-founder Liu Chuanzhi said that the Legend Group, which is controlled by the government-owned Chinese Academy of Sciences, will transfer 35% of the shares in Hong Kong listed subsidiary Legend Holdings, of which it owns 61%, to employees. Liu said Legend’s employees’ shareholding society currently hold a 35% profit-sharing right in the parent company, but have not been allowed to own shares until now. About 400 Legend managers and other senior employees will benefit with Liu and Legend’s other 14 founders holding 12.3% the parent company, or 7.4% of Legend Holdings. He said that Legend continues to enjoy tremendous growth with its PC sales up 77% year-on-year in the first quarter to 250,000 units.
