作者 | ZeR0
Edit | Desert Shadow
Tsinghua alumni have done another chip IPO!
Xinxi reported on April 11 that today, Brite, the second largest chip design service company in China and the fifth largest in the world, officially landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
Its issue price was 19.86 yuan per share, the issue price-to-earnings ratio was 25.12 times, and the stock price rose 177% to 55 yuan per share at the opening. As of 11 o'clock, Brite's share price reached as high as 56.88 yuan per share, an increase of 186%, and the latest market value was 6.4 billion yuan.
Zhao Haijun, 51, is the co-CEO of SMIC, the chairman of Brite, and the general manager of SMIC's second largest shareholder, SMIC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SMIC.
▲ Zhao Haijun
SMIC is the largest supplier of Brite at this stage, with its procurement value accounting for 84.89% of its total procurement in 2022.
In 2010, Brite and SMIC reached a strategic cooperation, and the following year, Brite's first 40nm chip was mass-produced in SMIC's first-class chip, the first 28nm intelligent mobile main chip was successfully taped out in 2015, the 40nm AI speech recognition chip was successfully taped out in 2019, and the advanced technology 5G baseband chip was successfully taped out in 2022.
Zhuang Zhiqing and his concert parties are the largest shareholders of Brite Shares, holding a total of 19.82% of the company's shares. The 49-year-old Zhuang Zhiqing is also the legal representative and general manager of Brite.
Zhao Haijun was born in Fuxin, Liaoning Province, is the local college entrance examination science champion, in 1983 was admitted to the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University, and then continued to study for graduate school, but also became the first batch of "master's and doctor's degree" doctoral students, into the only doctoral class in the department that year, under the tutelage of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, famous microelectronics expert Professor Li Zhijian, the deputy supervisor is Professor Li Ruiwei.
Zhuang Zhiqing is also an alumnus of the Department of Electronics of Tsinghua University, graduated from the Department of Electronics of Tsinghua University with a bachelor's and master's degree, and later went to the United States to study for a doctorate.
▲ Xiang Zhiqing
From 2020 to 2023, Brite has accumulated revenue of 4.1 billion yuan in four years, and Hubei Xiaomi is also an investor in Brite. In 2021, Brite was recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as a national-level specialized and new "little giant" enterprise.
In this IPO, Brite plans to raise 600 million yuan, and the actual fundraising is 596 million yuan.
In the first and fourth years, the revenue was 4.1 billion yuan, and more than 500 times of successful tape-out
Founded in July 2008 and headquartered in Zhangjiang, Shanghai, Brite focuses on providing one-stop chip customization services to customers.
From 2020 to 2023, Brite has a cumulative revenue of 4.1 billion yuan and a cumulative net profit of 329 million yuan in four years.
▲Changes in Brite's revenue, net profit, and R&D investment in 2020~2023 (unit: 100 million yuan, no data on R&D investment expenses in 2023 have been queried)
Brite has the design capability of China's own advanced technology, and realizes the layout of self-developed high-speed interface IP and high-performance analog IP in advanced technology.
In the first half of 2023, Brite's mass production chip revenue accounted for more than 6 percent, and chip design business revenue accounted for nearly 4 percent, showing a year-on-year growth trend from 2020~2022.
During the reporting period, Brite provided customers with one-stop chip customization services and completed a total of 535 tape-out projects.
During the reporting period, Brite's chip customization projects were mainly concentrated in 65nm and below process nodes, and the revenue of 65nm and below process nodes showed an overall upward trend.
According to public information, the revenue of GUC, Shixin and VeriSilicon is mainly concentrated in advanced processes of 16nm/14nm and below, and Brite is still catching up in terms of process technology.
There are certain differences in the comprehensive gross profit margin of comparable companies in the same industry, and the overall level is lower than that of comparable companies in the same industry, mainly due to the large differences in the business areas, customer types and business scale of chip customization services of comparable companies.
2. SMIC is the largest supplier
During the Reporting Period, Brite mainly sold wafers, chips and reticles to its top five customers, and there was no situation where the sales ratio to a single customer exceeded 50% of the total.
Brite's procurement from the top five suppliers mainly includes wafers and masks, packaging and testing, and IP licensing.
Among them, SMIC is the largest supplier of Brite.
In 2020, 2021 and 2022, Brite purchased 69.02%, 77.25% and 84.89% of the total procurement amount from SMIC, respectively.
The details of the amount of related party transactions with SMIC are as follows:
3. SMIC and Xiaomi participate in the investment, and there is no actual controller or controlling shareholder
Brite has no controlling shareholder or actual controller, with a total of 29 institutional shareholders and 3 natural person shareholders, and the largest shareholder Zhuang Zhiqing and its concerted actors hold a total of 19.82% of the shares.
SMIC and Hubei Xiaomi are the second and eighth largest shareholders of Brite respectively.
Brite's current directors, supervisors, senior management and core technical personnel receive the following remuneration from the Company in 2022:
Among them, Zhuang Zhi's youth salary is the largest, reaching 5.32 million yuan in 2022.
As of June 2023, Brite has a total of 272 employees, of which 96 are R&D personnel, accounting for 35%.
Conclusion: Promoting the localization of key IP is a strategic need
At this stage, most of the mainland chip design companies use the IP of foreign chip giants in the process of product research and development.
The dominant position of foreign companies makes the licensing fee high, which increases the design cost of mainland chip design enterprises. The long-term restriction of semiconductor core technology and intellectual property rights will pose potential risks to the independence and security of domestic chips in the mainland.
Therefore, promoting the localization of key IP is the choice of the market and the demand of the national strategy.
Brite has formed a core technology system composed of large-scale SoC custom design technology and semiconductor IP development technology, and will continue to improve the value and differentiation of its design services on the basis of technology accumulation and continuous innovation in the future.