Montage to price $902 million Hong Kong listing at top of range, sources say

By Scott Murdoch and Yantoultra Ngui

SYDNEY/SINGAPORE, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Chinese semiconductor designer Montage Technology is set to price its Hong Kong listing at the top end of a range, raising as much as HK$7.04 billion ($902 million), two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Montage has offered 65.9 million H shares in Hong Kong at a maximum offer price of HK$106.89 apiece, valuing the firm at about HK$180.36 billion, the people told Reuters on Tuesday.

Montage’s shares, which were up 2.3% at 182.03 yuan ($26.24) in Shanghai, have risen 54% so far this year, giving the group a market capitalization of around $29.3 billion, LSEG data showed.

The offer price is expected to be determined by February 5 and announced by February 6, with shares set to debut on February 9, the company’s prospectus shows.

Montage did not respond to a request for comment on the pricing, which was earlier reported by Bloomberg.

Proceeds of the Hong Kong second listing will go mainly towards research and development, as well as commercialisation, strategic investments and/or acquisitions and working capital, the Montage prospectus said.

The offering has 17 cornerstone investors committing $450 million, including JPMorgan Asset Management, UBS Asset Management and Yunfeng Capital.

Founded in 2004, Montage designs integrated circuits that help to speed data movement in servers and data centres.

The sector has drawn heavy investment as China accelerates its efforts to secure domestic alternatives to high-end chips and manufacturing equipment from the United States, where the government has imposed export restrictions.

CICC, Morgan Stanley and UBS are acting as joint sponsors of the offering.

($1 = 7.8124 Hong Kong dollars)

($1 = 6.9359 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus and Alexander Smith)