Mainland memory firms eye Hong Kong for funds to fuel ‘global ambitions’

A number of mainland-based suppliers of memory chips and storage solutions are pursuing share listings in Hong Kong, signalling a strategic change in how the sector aims to fuel its global ambitions, according to analysts.

The most watched firm is Shanghai-based Montage Technology, a designer of high-speed interconnect chips for data centres, which is taking orders from institutional investors and is set to debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday.

Montage, which listed in Shanghai in 2019, expected to raise as much as HK$7 billion (US$896 million) from its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), partly to “strengthen [its] global leadership and seize opportunities in the field of cloud computing and AI infrastructure”, according to its prospectus.

It was the world’s largest memory interconnect chip supplier in 2024, with 38.6 per cent of the market, according to data from Frost & Sullivan. The company planned to price its offering at the top of its range at HK$106.89 while halting institutional orders a day earlier than planned amid abundant interest, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Montage’s dual-listing approach follows that of GigaDevice Semiconductor, which debuted in Hong Kong last month, after listing in Shanghai a decade ago. The expansion to the Hong Kong capital market supported a “long-term global growth strategy”, GigaDevice said.

In January, at least three other firms making memory products submitted applications for Hong Kong listings, namely Hosin Global Electronics, XTX Technology and Beijing XSKY Technology. XTX, which develops code storage flash memories, withdrew its IPO application for an offering on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s ChiNext board in 2023.

The wave of memory firms hoping to offer Hong Kong shares “signals a strategic move in how the sector fuels its global ambitions”, said MS Hwang, research director at Counterpoint Research. He noted that the five firms mentioned do not fabricate memory cells, the fundamental building blocks of computer memory, which can can be packaged into memory products.