HTC is planning to sell its mobile phone manufacturing plant in Shanghai, and the money gained will be invested into the virtual reality operations of the business.
HTC's board of directors has decided to sell its Shanghai manufacturing plant to a Chinese mainland company for USD91 million, which is about CNY630 million, with the aim of allocating more money to expand its VR business. HTC emphasized that the sale of the plant would not affect the overall business of its mobile phone unit. The buyer of the factory is reportedly Xingbao Information Technology.
HTC's Shanghai mobile phone manufacturing plant was built in 2009 with an area of 114,000 square meters and it is mainly engaged in making smartphones sold in mainland China. In 2011, the factory boasted monthly production of two million units. However, with the decline of HTC's mobile phone business, many product lines of this factory went idle.
HTC sold one factory in Taoyuan, Taiwan in December 2015 for USD183 million. At present, the company still has three factories in Taoyuan.
In 2016, the company's operating revenue was NTD78.16 billion, a year-on-year decline of 35%, and it was the lowest point over the past 11 years. The company's operating revenue once reached NTD465.8 billion in 2011.
VR is the future hope for HTC. In 2016, the company's high-end VR product HTC Vive realized sales of 450,000 units. Statistics from the market research firm Canalys show that China is the world's second largest market for high-end VR devices in 2016 with a total shipment of about 300,000 units, of which 17.7% were HTC Vive, ranking first in this marketplace.