Secondary share sale of Actions Semi cut
Nasdaq-listed Actions Semiconductor, the mainland's second-largest chip designer, cut the size of a secondary share sale by 33 per cent to US$83 million after receiving a lukewarm response from investors.
A total of 10 million American depositary receipts were sold for US$8.30 each by 30 to 35 existing shareholders, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The final price represents a 4.4 per cent discount to Wednesday's closing price of US$8.69.
The deal was 2.5 times oversubscribed. The 1.5 million share green shoe could be exercised depending on how the stock trades over the next month. 'They have 30 days by regulation to make the decision,' said a market source.
Nearly all the demand came from United States investors, although there were a couple of buyers in Asia because Actions is a Chinese company, the market source said.
The selling shareholders originally hoped to raise US$120 million by selling 12 million ADRs in July, according to market sources.
Since the sale was first announced, the Nasdaq semiconductor index has slipped 4 per cent. On Friday, Actions' bigger US rival, SigmaTel, secured a favourable ruling in its International Trade Commission case against Actions that bars the shipment of most of Actions' existing products into the US.
Actions, which supplies chips to low-end MP3 music player manufacturers in China, posted a second-quarter profit of US$18.1 million, up 5 per cent from the US$17.2 million it earned for the same period last year. Revenue rose 6 per cent to US$39.3 million.
The firm's shares have traded in a range of US$6.55 to US$12.24 since they went public at US$8 in November last year.
