HTC to sell its Shanghai factory in favor of VR business

Taipei, March 15 (CNA) Taiwanese smartphone giant HTC Corp. (宏達電) said Wednesday that it plans to sell its phone manufacturing facility in Shanghai so that it can put more resources into its virtual reality (VR) business.

The factory will be sold to an undisclosed Chinese firm for 630 million yuan (US$91.17 million), HTC said.

The company said the sale of the Shanghai plant will not affect its mobile division.

HTC reported consolidated sales of NT$78.16 billion (US$2.44 billion) for 2016, the lowest since it posted NT$72.77 billion in 2005.

In the fourth quarter of last year, HTC posted a loss per share of NT$3.77 and reported a net loss for the seventh consecutive quarter.