China's Actions Semi IPO in Doubt

While China's Actions Semiconductor has scaled back its planned initial public offering (IPO) here in the United States, a Honk Kong financial publication is reporting that it is completely withdrawing its IPO. Mp3 chipmaker Actions Semiconductor Co. Ltd., based in Zhuhai, China, originally filed a prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) early this month in which it planned to sell 13 million American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq. Its proposed maximum aggregate offering price was $225 million. It then amended that to 10 million ADS in a filing with the SEC dated Nov. 18. with a proposed maximum aggregate offering price of $103.5 million. Just a few days prior, fellow Chinese fabless company Vimicro International Corp., launched its IPO on the Nasdaq, a launch that was decidedly lackluster. The company, which makes embedded multimedia processors, opened on the market on Nov. 15 at $10.01 per share; it closed its first day of trading at $8.36 per share. Underwriter Morgan-Stanley had anticipated an opening price of $11 to $13 per share. In trading in the ensuing days, Vimicro's stock price has been hovering around $9 per share. ADVERTISEMENT Actions, which had been scheduled to launch its IPO the Tuesday following Vimicro's launch, subsequently delayed its own float on the Nasdaq. Now, according to a report in Hong Kong's The Standard, a financial newspaper published in English, reported Nov. 24 that Actions had canceled its IPO altogether, citing unnamed sources. It also cited the Vimicro's lackluster debut. Actions couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Not all Chinese IPOs have done badly this past year; Internet search engine Baidu and medical device maker China Medical Technologies Inc. have more than doubled their IPO price since debuting earlier this year. Swiss-based firm Credit Suisse First Boston, which is underwriting Action's IPO, also handled the Baidu IPO.