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.