Beijing-based Vimicro Corp has mandated Morgan Stanley for a roughly $200 million IPO that should surface in early autumn. The company is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Solomon System, which became China's first fabless IC design house to list overseas in early April, raising $135 million.
The JPMorgan-led deal is still trading just above its HK$1.75 issue price and closed Tuesday at HK$1.80. Over the last two weeks it has bounced back from a low of HK$1.16.
Solomon Systech designs chips for LCD drivers, while Vimicro designs digital imaging chips used in mobile phones, digital cameras and PDAs. Both companies...