SemiFive Inc. and TeraView Holdings Plc, semiconductor-related companies backed by US and UK shareholders, are set to go public in South Korea this year in hopes of tapping into renewed investor appetite for chip stocks.
According to initial public offering prospectuses filed with the Financial Services Commission last week, SemiFive Inc., a designer of semiconductor integrated circuits, plans to raise up to 129.6 billion won ($91.3 million) in an initial public offering slated for December.
The Seoul-based company will issue 5.4 million new shares at a price range of 21,000 to 24,000 won, implying a post-listing valuation of 708 billion to 809 billion won.
While below earlier expectations of about 1 trillion won, analysts view the pricing as ambitious for a loss-making firm listing under Korea’s “Tesla Rule,” which allows high-tech firms to go public despite not yet posting a profit.
SemiFive reported sales of 48.1 billion won and an operating loss of 28.1 billion won in 2024.
TeraView Holdings Plc, the parent of UK-based terahertz imaging inspection system developer TeraView Ltd., plans to raise as much as 40 billion won through the sale of 5 million new shares at its indicative band of between 7,000 and 8,000 won apiece in a November listing.
The IPO would value the firm at 249 billion to 284 billion won, roughly double the valuation it fetched in its pre-IPO round last November.
It logged an operating loss of 1.6 billion won in 2024 with a revenue of 7.6 billion won and is also proceeding its IPO under Korea’s technology-special listing track.
FOREIGN OWNERSHIP AND LOCK-UP TERMS
Both companies, which will list on Korea’s secondary Kosdaq market, are considered foreign entities as their largest shareholders are based overseas.
SemiFive was founded in 2019 as the Korean operation of SiFive Inc., a US semiconductor company designing RISC-V-based processors and silicon chips. SiFive remains the largest shareholder with a 17.69% stake, while CEO Myung-hyun Brandon Cho holds 2.4%
TeraView Holdings, founded in Korea in 2024, controls TeraView, whose largest shareholder is DAGE Precision Industries, the UK unit of Nasdaq-listed Nordson Corp., with 15.66%, while its top executives and institutional investors hold the remaining stakes.
If successful, the IPO would make TeraView the first UK company to debut on the Korean stock exchange and the second foreign company to list on the Kosdaq since NeoImmuneTech Inc., a US-based biotech, went public in 2021.
Expectations are high for both SemiFive and TeraView as Korea’s chip sector benefits from a rebound in the global semiconductor cycle.
Analysts said their post-listing performance will likely serve as a gauge for investor sentiment toward upcoming chip-related IPOs in the country.
SAMSUNG AND SK HYNIX AMONG KEY CUSTOMERS
To bolster investor confidence, both companies have imposed three-year lock-up periods on their largest shareholders, a longer-than-usual restriction given their foreign ownership structures.
SemiFive’s major holders, including SiFive executives and CEO Cho, will have 6.2 million shares (18.5% post-listing) restricted for three years, while Doosan Tesna Inc., its strategic investor, will also retain its 1.97% stake for the same period.
TeraView’s controlling shareholder, DAGE Precision Industries, CEO Don Arnon and key executives are likewise subject to a three-year lock-up covering 6.19 million shares (17.4% post-listing).
Both firms count Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc. among their key partners, with SemiFive as a chip design platform provider and TeraView as a supplier of inspection systems.
They plan to use IPO proceeds to strengthen their positions in Korea’s semiconductor ecosystem amid a cyclical rebound in global chip demand.
Samsung Securities Co. and UBS jointly underwrite SemiFive, while Samsung Securities is the lead underwriter for TeraView Holdings.
By Hanjong Choi
onebell@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.
