(Yicai) June 27 -- Honor, China’s fourth-largest smartphone maker, has filed documents with the country’s securities watchdog for an initial public offering more than four years after being spun off from Huawei Technologies.

The Shenzhen-based firm has started the IPO guidance phase, which is scheduled to wrap up between next January and March, a filing published by the China Securities Regulatory Commission revealed yesterday. Citic Securities is the listing’s underwriter.

Under China’s registration-based IPO system, companies seeking a stock market listing first undergo a guidance phase covering due diligence, internal controls, and regulatory training.

Honor has been preparing to go public since last year, including bringing in several heavyweight investors such as state-owned telecom carriers China Mobile and China Telecom, as well as state-owned investment bank China International Capital. The firm announced last December that it had completed its shareholding reform and would initiate the IPO process in due course.

The management team has undergone a big shakeup this year, with Zhao Ming resigning as chief executive in January and being replaced by Li Jian, who was vice chairman and a director. Last month, Honor announced the re-opening of 38 key positions within its China business unit, leading to changes of personnel in 17 of the positions.

The management revamp is part of Honor's efforts to revitalize its market performance. Amid intense competition, its shipments in the Chinese mainland fell 3 percent last year to 42.2 million units, with its market share down 1 percentage point to 15 percent. That put Honor behind Vivo, Huawei, Apple, and Oppo, according to data from market research firm Canalys.

Its market share shrank further to 13.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to data from Counterpoint, another market researcher.

Honor was set up as a budget handset brand by Chinese tech giant Huawei in 2013. But after Huawei was targeted by US policies restricting chip shipments, Honor was spun off as an independent entity in 2020, with state-owned Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology becoming its main shareholder.

Shenzhen Zhixin directly owns 49.55 percent of Honor, the CSRC filing showed.

Editor: Tom Litting