TAIWAN'S EVERGREEN LINE TO GO PUBLIC
Liner shipping specialist <Evergreen
Marine Corp>, Taiwan's largest private company, has applied to
the Security and Exchange Commission to go public next month, a
company spokeswoman told Reuters.
    She said Evergreen had doubled its capital to eight billion
Taiwan dlrs since last August.
    "The capital increase will boost our operations," she said.
    She said Evergreen will use the funds raised from the stock
market to buy new ships and step up its global services.
    The spokeswoman said the company posted an after-tax profit
of more than one billion dlrs last year on total revenues of
20.46 billion, compared to an after-tax profit of 1.18 billion
on revenues of 17.99 billion in 1985.
    Evergreen has placed newbuilding orders for three 3,428-teu
(twenty-foot equivalent unit) fully cellular container ships
with the state-owned <China Shipbuilding Corp> for delivery in
late 1988.
    Evergreen has a fleet of 66 container vessels, totalling
more than two mln dwt, the spokeswoman said.
 REUTER
