Shanghai Longcheer Telecommunication Ltd, a Shanghai-based handset design company, plans to sell its shares for the first time overseas.
A source close to the deal told Shanghai Daily it would likely be next year on the Singapore exchange. It would be the first time a Chinese handset design company floats shares on an overseas market.
The firm will probably receive venture capital from a Singapore-based company before it issues an initial public offering, said the source, who declined to be identified.
"We are in talks with some capital ventures now and I think the IPO won't happen by the end of this year," another senior official at Longcheer, who also required anonymity, told Shanghai Daily in a telephone interview yesterday.
Longcheer will probably sell shares on the Singapore stock market, the source said.
The firm's revenue was 214 million yuan (US$25.78 million) last year. The profit figure was not available.
Located in Xuhui District, the company designs mobile phones for domestic vendors, including Shenzhen-listed ZTE Corp, Guangzhou Soutec Group Technology Co Ltd and Eastern Communications Co Ltd.
A technology gap still exists between home-grown companies and overseas companies such as Nokia Oyj and Motorola Inc although domestic handset design companies have grown rapidly in the past few years.
"Handset design often needs basic semiconductor technologies and that's the sector Chinese companies lack compared with foreign rivals," said Li Xuefang, an analyst at Beijing-based CCID Consulting Co Ltd, a research firm under the Ministry of Information Industry.
In April, US-based Qualcomm Inc announced it has invested US$14 million as a capital venture into Chinese handset designer Techfaith Wireless Communication Technology Co Ltd.
Meanwhile, NEC Corp has built a 50-million-yuan joint venture with Techfaith in Beijing. Techfaith controlled 70 percent of that business.