Mainland chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) appointed Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) as a book-runner for its planned international initial public offering next year, according to banking sources. The Shanghai-based foundry was hoping to net US$750 million from the proposed Hong Kong and New York flotation, the sources said on Monday. Deutsche Bank had won a second book-running mandate for the offer, Finance Asia? reported yesterday, adding five other international investment banks - Bear Stearns, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and UBS - were vying for the remaining book-running role. What had drawn investment bankers to the deal was SMIC's potential as 'a frequent and sizeable repeat issuer' due to the chip industry's capital-intensive nature, the report said. A source familiar with the chipmaker said a listing timetable had yet to be worked out. 'The execution of the plan is subject to a lot of factors, such as market conditions,' he said. SMIC, founded by Taiwanese semiconductor veteran Richard Chang in 2000, was the first foreign-invested chip foundry in China. Together with Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing - chaired by Winston Wang, son of Formosa Plastics Group billionaire Wang Yung-ching, with Jiang Mianheng, son of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, as vice-chairman - it has been at the forefront of China's push to develop its chip-manufacturing industry. So far, US$1.48 billion has been invested in SMIC, with shareholders contributing $1 billion and another $480 million coming from bank borrowing. Red chip Shanghai Industrial Holdings owns 16.2 per cent of SMIC. Its other shareholders include United States investment bank Goldman Sachs, venture capitalists Walden International and Vertex Management, fund manager H&Q Asia-Pacific and Growth Enterprise Market-listed mainland software designer Beijing Beida Jade Bird Universal Sci-Tech.
