CSRC: Approves GigaDevice's IPO Registration on the ChiNext

On June 16, the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced that the Commission had recently approved the registration of the initial public offering of GalaxyCore Co., Ltd. on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in accordance with legal procedures. GalaxyCore and its underwriters will negotiate with the Shanghai Stock Exchange to determine the issuance schedule and publish the prospectus in succession.

The world's leading CMOS image sensor supplier

According to information, GalaxyCore is one of the world's leading semiconductor and integrated circuit design companies, with its main business being the research, design and sales of CMOS image sensors and display driver chips. The company currently mainly provides CMOS image sensors with QVGA (80,000 pixels) to 13 million pixels and LCD driver chips with resolutions between QQVGA and FHD. Its products are mainly used in the mobile phone field, and are also widely used in consumer electronics and industrial applications including tablets, laptops, wearable devices, mobile payments, automotive electronics, etc.

At present, GalaxyCore has become a world-leading supplier of CMOS image sensors. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, in 2019, the company shipped 1.31 billion CMOS image sensors, accounting for 20.7% of the global market share, ranking second in the industry; in terms of sales, in 2019, the company's CMOS image sensor sales revenue reached 3.19 billion yuan, ranking eighth in the world.

At the same time, GalaxyCore's display driver chip products are mainly LCD driver chips, and it is in a leading position in this market. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, in 2019, the company ranked second among suppliers in the Chinese market with 420 million LCD driver chips shipped, accounting for 9.6% of the Chinese market shipments. Among the top five suppliers in the Chinese market, four are from Taiwan, China. GalaxyCore is the only mainland Chinese company among them, breaking the monopoly of Taiwanese companies in this market.

GalaxyCore has accumulated rich end-customer resources worldwide, and has formed long-term and stable cooperative relationships with many industry-leading camera and display module manufacturers such as Sunny Optical, O-Film, Q Technology, Lijing, Shengtai Optics, Jiangxi Helitai, Lianchuang Electronics, MCNEX, Hubei Sanyingxing, China Optoelectronics, Tongxingda, Zhongxian Intelligent, and Huaxing Optoelectronics. Its products are widely used in many mainstream terminal brand products such as Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Transsion, Nokia, Lenovo, HP, TCL, and Xiaotiancai.

From 2017 to January-March 2020, GalaxyCore achieved main business revenues of RMB 196,601.68 million, RMB 218,640.19 million, RMB 368,020.45 million and RMB 124,762.48 million, and net profits of RMB-871.70 million, RMB 49,974.81 million, RMB 35,937.12 million and RMB 19,651.26 million, respectively.

Raised 6.96 billion yuan to invest in 12-inch CIS project

The funds raised from the IPO of GalaxyCore after deducting the issuance expenses will be invested in the following projects:

GalaxyCore stated that the company's use of the raised funds this time is all centered around its main business. Among them, the 12-inch CIS integrated circuit characteristic process research and development and industrialization project, under the background of the tightening global BSI wafer supply, guarantees the supply of 12-inch BSI wafers through the method of "self-built production lines and segmented processing", realizes independent control of key production steps of CIS special processes, and consolidates and enhances the company's market position and comprehensive competitiveness. The CMOS image sensor research and development project combines the company's product planning and overall strategic goals. On the one hand, it optimizes the cost and improves the performance of existing products, further expanding the company's competitive advantage and market share in mid- and low-end CIS products; on the other hand, it actively develops high-pixel products, enriches product echelons, and provides strong technical support for the company's sustainable development. The company's existing business is the basis for the company to implement the raised funds investment project, and the implementation of the investment project provides a guarantee for the company's future sales and profit expansion.

Regarding the future development strategy, GalaxyCore stated that since its establishment, the company has always focused on the field of CMOS image sensor chips and display driver chips, and is committed to providing customers with first-class overall solutions for photography, video and display technology. Relying on advanced technologies in chip design and process research and development, the company has significantly reduced product costs while ensuring product performance, forming a highly competitive product line. After nearly 20 years of development, it has achieved significant scale advantages and a leading industry position in the global market. In the future, the company plans to further focus on the field of mobile phone camera and display solutions, deepen cooperation with terminal brand customers, and achieve the expansion from cost-effective products to high-performance products in terms of product positioning, the expansion from secondary cameras to main cameras in terms of product applications, and the transformation from Fabless to Fab-Lite in terms of business model.

The company has achieved the transformation from the Fabless model to the Fab-Lite model through various measures such as building some 12-inch BSI wafer back-end production lines, 12-inch wafer manufacturing pilot lines, and some OCF manufacturing and back grinding and cutting production lines. By building some 12-inch BSI wafer back-end production lines, the company can effectively guarantee the production capacity supply of 12-inch BSI wafers, realize independent control over key manufacturing links, and enhance the company's market position in many aspects such as industrial chain collaboration and product delivery; building 12-inch wafer manufacturing pilot lines can shorten the company's process research and development time for high-end products, improve the company's research and development efficiency, and respond quickly to market demand; building some OCF manufacturing and back grinding and cutting production lines can ensure the supply chain security of the company's mid- and low-end products, complement existing suppliers, and ensure the stable delivery of mid- and low-end products when upstream production capacity is in short supply.