(Yicai Global) Sept. 6 -- Shares in Zhang Xiaoquan, a famed Chinese scissors, shears and knife brand that dates back almost 400 years, more than quintupled today on its first day of trading on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s Nasdaq-style ChiNext board.

Zhang Xiaoquan’s share price [SHE:301055] closed up five-fold at CNY34.09 (USD5.28), giving it a market capitalization of CNY5.3 billion (USD821 million). Earlier in the day it had reached CNY38.66.

The firm, which is the first scissor and knife maker to go public in China, issued 39 million shares at an issue price of CNY6.90. It raised CNY269.1 million (USD41.7 million), quite a bit less than the previously anticipated CNY455.3 million.

The proceeds will be used to build a 86,000-square-meter smart manufacturing center in Yangjiang, Guangdong province with an annual output of 30 million pieces, said the Hangzhou-based firm, which took its modern form in 2008, but has been making scissors since 1663.

Zhang Xiaoquan logged a 34.9 percent jump in net profit in the first half from the same period a year earlier to CNY44.3 million (USD6.9 million), according to its latest financial report. Revenue was up 31.7 percent to CNY330 million (USD51 million).

Yangjiang is well known for its scissor and knife production. In 2018, the region had an output value of CNY55 billion (USD8.5 billion), accounting for 70 percent of the national total and 85 percent of all exports.

Editor: Kim Taylor