AI Unicorn Cambricon Gets Fastest-Ever Approval for Star Market IPO
Dou Shicong
DATE:  Jun 03 2020
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
AI Unicorn Cambricon Gets Fastest-Ever Approval for Star Market IPO AI Unicorn Cambricon Gets Fastest-Ever Approval for Star Market IPO

(Yicai Global) June 3 -- Cambricon Technologies, a Chinese unicorn focused on artificial intelligence, has set a record time for securing approval to list on the Nasdaq-like Shanghai Star Market after landing the green light in just 68 days.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange approved Cambricon’s initial public offering application after just two rounds of investigation, rather than the usual three. It accepted the filing on March 26, in which Cambricon said it wanted to issue 40.1 million shares to raise CNY2.8 billion (USD395 million).

The Beijing-based firm is the brain child of Chen Tianshi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Computing Technology, and his brother. They set up the firm in 2016 to develop smart chips in China and quadrupled revenue annually to CNY444 million (USD62.4 million). It still lost CNY1.2 billion after splurging on research and equity incentives.

Shanghai has been accelerating review procedures for listings on the Star Market, which is intended for innovative science and technology startups. 20 companies have gained approval to list since May, making up 41 percent of the total so far this year. The Star Market has accepted a total 323 applications since it opened in July, and approved 157 of them, according to data from The Paper. 85 are pending review.

There has been an upsurge in the number of companies hoping to list on the Star Market recently, the bourse said on May 29, adding that it would optimize its review process and improve and make public listing standards.

The Star Market uses a registration-based IPO approval system that hands control over who can or cannot list to the stock exchanges rather than the China Securities Regulatory Commission, which usually handles applications. The bourse only checks financial data meets requirements and passes no judgment on the value or other aspects of the applicants.

Editor: James Boynton

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Keywords:   Cambricon Technologies,SSE Star Market,IPO