HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang (CNA file photo)

Taipei, Sept. 8 (CNA) Taiwanese handset maker HTC Corp. (宏達電) denied Tuesday a report that the company plans to sell a manufacturing plant in Shanghai to Chinese phone maker OnePlus Corp. (一加).

The smartphone maker was responding to a Sept. 5 report by Hong Kong-based tech news site Qooah, which said OnePlus CEO Liu Zuohu (劉作虎) posted a picture on Chinese microblog Weibo about his business in Taipei.

The picture posted Sept. 4 featured Liu standing in front of HTC's headquarters in New Taipei's Xindian District, indicating that OnePlus, which Qooah reported as being a sign that he was a potential buyer of HTC's Shanghai plant.

The Qooah report came after Taiwanese weekly Next Magazine reported Aug. 19 that HTC was in talks to sell its smartphone manufacturing factory in Shanghai to an unidentified Chinese company to address its mounting financial woes.

HTC set up the 146,667-square-meter factory in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai in 2009 with an initial investment of NT$1.05 billion (US$32.3 million) to cater to the fast-growing smartphone market in China, the magazine reported.

HTC did not confirm the Next Magazine report but reiterated an earlier statement on the company's business realignment, in which it said it would cut up to 15 percent of its global workforce, or around 2,300 jobs, as part of efforts to reduce its operating costs by 35 percent.

(By Jeffrey Wu)
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