Sinking SICC Looks For Lift From Hong Kong IPO

The maker of silicon carbide substrates has been cleared by China's securities regulator to list in Hong Kong, even as its revenue began to contract in the first quarter

Key Takeaways:

The Chinese securities regulator has registered an IPO plan by semiconductor firm SICC, clearing the way for its listing to proceed in Hong Kong

After reporting strong revenue gains in 2023, the SiC substrate maker's growth slowed sharply last year and began to contract in the first quarter of 2025

What a difference four months makes.

When semiconductor company SICC Co. Ltd. (688234.SH) first filed to list in Hong Kong back in February, it was boasting strong double-digit revenue growth and was on track to report its first annual profit. The company's Hong Kong listing, which was just approved by China's securities regulator on Friday, would complement its existing listing on Shanghai's STAR Market.

The listing plan's registration by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) officially clears the way for SICC to sell shares into one of the hottest Hong Kong IPO markets in years. It plans to sell 87.2 million shares in the listing, according to the CSRC registration statement.

The listing is being underwritten by two of China's largest investment banks, CICC and Citic Securities, indicating it will mostly target Asian investors. That's not too surprising, since the West, and the U.S. in particular, are increasingly taking steps to ban their investors from buying shares in Chinese makers of cutting-edge technologies, including microchips that are used in many high-tech gadgets, but also have defense applications.

SICC's Hong Kong listing plan looked relatively attractive when it first filed its application in February, and updated the application a month later. But since that application, which only included its financial information through the end of last September, its business has headed into a tailspin.

The company and its peers are being pummeled on a couple of fronts. SICC makes silicon carbide (SiC) substrates, ...