TeraView Holdings is about to develop into the primary U.Okay. firm to record on Korea’s secondary Kosdaq market, a transfer that might pave the way in which for the entry of extra international tech corporations, trade officers stated Friday.
The Cambridge-based firm has priced its shares at 8,000 gained ($5.44), following a book-building course of held from Nov. 13-19. A complete of 1,811 institutional buyers participated, leading to a extremely aggressive subscription fee of 646 to 1.
The preliminary public providing (IPO) has been valued at 40 billion gained. The corporate set to debut on Dec. 9, after retail investor subscriptions from Friday to Monday.
TeraView, which pioneered the commercialization of terahertz ultra-precision inspection tools, is positioning itself as a next-generation various to electron-beam applied sciences. Terahertz waves vibrate at a trillion cycles per second and are gaining traction in superior semiconductor purposes.
Firm CEO Donald Arnone instructed reporters Wednesday that the agency selected Korea because of the focus of its key shoppers within the area. About 60 p.c of its income at present comes from semiconductor corporations, a lot of that are primarily based in Korea.
TeraView has longstanding ties with the nation. After first supplying tools to Samsung Electronics in 2011, the corporate secured backing from Samsung Enterprise Funding Corp. in a 2017 capital increase, leading to a 4 p.c stake. Samsung Securities additionally acquired a 2.7 p.c stake in a pre-IPO fundraising spherical in November final yr.
Following the IPO, the corporate plans to determine an Asia hub in Korea and broaden operations into Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan.
The itemizing follows a Korea Alternate promotion marketing campaign within the U.Okay. final November. A key attraction was the Kosdaq’s particular monitor for tech corporations, which permits listings primarily based on technological potential reasonably than strict monetary metrics — a framework unavailable within the U.Okay.
The IPO will mark the primary international firm itemizing on the Kosdaq in over 4 years. Whereas round 20 international corporations are at present listed in Korea, urge for food has waned since 2021, weighed down by the “Korea low cost” and pandemic-era outreach disruptions.
Trade officers say if TeraView’s itemizing is profitable, Korea may emerge as a extra viable itemizing vacation spot for different international know-how corporations sooner or later.
“If the federal government’s capital market restructuring continues, curiosity from each international buyers and firms is predicted to rise,” stated one brokerage trade official.
Arnone additionally expressed confidence in Korea’s funding panorama.
“There have been considerations previously in regards to the Korean market versus Hong Kong, New York, and so on. We predict that is altering,” Arnone stated. “We’re fairly assured that there is much more worth being generated for the shareholders within the Korean market now than there was three or 4 years in the past, and we see that persevering with transferring ahead.”
