[HONG KONG] Chinese chip designer Montage Technology is set to enlist Alibaba Group Holding and JPMorgan Asset Management among the key investors in its upcoming Hong Kong listing, according to people familiar with the matter, in a sign of promising demand for the Asian financial hub’s latest share sale related to artificial intelligence.
Alibaba and the JPMorgan Chase asset manager are participating as cornerstone investors, which get guaranteed allocation in exchange for holding the shares for a period of time, the people said, asking not to be identified because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
The listing may raise about US$900 million – or more, if the underwriters exercise the so-called overallotment option, some of the people said.
Other cornerstones in the deal include Scotland-based asset manager Aberdeen Group, South Korea’s Mirae Asset Securities and UBS Group’s asset-management arm, the people added.
Montage, whose shares are already traded in Shanghai, is set to start taking investor orders as early as Friday (Jan 16), according to other people familiar with the transaction. The company may list its shares as soon as this month.
Representatives for Aberdeen and UBS declined to comment. Montage, Alibaba, JPMorgan and Mirae Asset did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Deliberations are ongoing, and details of the deal may change.
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Founded in 2004, Montage designs chips that help speed data flows within data centres and AI accelerators. Its shares gained 73 per cent last year, with the company currently valued at about US$22 billion.
The company reported a profit of 1.4 billion yuan (S$258.1 million) for 2024, with the metric possibly rising to 2.3 billion yuan in 2025 and 3.3 billion yuan in 2026, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Montage would be adding to what has been a record January for maiden share sales in Hong Kong, largely fuelled by Chinese firms tied to AI tapping the market against the backdrop of the technological race between Beijing and Washington. Listings in the Chinese territory have raised US$4.3 billion in just the first two weeks of 2026, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Hong Kong listings have attracted big-name investors participating as cornerstones, especially as the city’s share-sale market staged a blistering recovery last year. Alibaba and Mirae Asset were also cornerstones in the initial public offering of Chinese OpenAI challenger MiniMax Group this month. REUTERS
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