Geke Micro, The Leader Of Domestic CMOS Image Sensor, Has Won The Share Of Scientific And Technological Innovation Board

On November 6, gekewei passed the examination of the municipal Party Committee on the science and technology innovation board. The science and technology innovation board is about to usher in the leading enterprise of domestic CMOS image sensor.

For non industry insiders, gekewei's name is not well known, but it is well-known in the industry. The company is one of the leading semiconductor and integrated circuit design enterprises in China and internationally. Its main business is the research and development, design and sales of CMOS image sensor and display driver chip.

According to Frost & Sullivan research data, the company ranks the second in the global market of CMOS image sensor suppliers and the second in China's LCD display driver chip suppliers based on the shipment caliber in 2019.

According to the company's prospectus, gekewei plans to raise 6.96 billion yuan in the application for listing on the science and technology innovation board, which will be used for the R & D and industrialization projects of 12 inch CIS IC and the R & D project of CMOS image sensor.

What is remarkable is that gekewei's fund-raising scale of 6.96 billion yuan is in the forefront of the whole science and technology innovation board. Behind the fund-raising project, it shows the company's strategic intention to further control the core technical links: by building part of the 12 inch BSI wafer rear production line, the company can guarantee the production capacity supply of 12 inch BSI wafer, realize the independent control of key manufacturing links, and improve the company's market position in many aspects such as industrial chain coordination and product delivery.

It is precisely because of this, before going public, gekewei has attracted the attention of many well-known investment institutions. The well-known investment institution, Walden US dollar fund, holds 5.64% of the total shares. Xiaomi Changjiang, Lhasa wentianxia, Juyuan Juxin, Huarong, Shenzhen TCL and Jucheng Qiushi are all shareholders.

Among them, Lhasa wentianxia's shareholders include Zhang Xuezheng, chairman of Wentai technology; Juyuan Juxin's controlling shareholder is the national integrated circuit industry investment fund (45.09%); Huarong is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Huahong; and Jucheng Qiushi is a fund founded by Yin Yimin, former chairman of ZTE, with limited partners including xinyisheng and Jufei optoelectronics.

"The main purpose of the company's listing on the science and technology innovation board is to solve the bottleneck problem of related research and development. If it has been subject to the relevant supporting production line, there will be more uncontrollable factors. " On November 9, the relevant person in charge of gekewei said in an interview with the reporter of the 21st century economic report.

7 billion self built production line to prepare for a rainy day

How to use RMB 669 million? According to the prospectus, it is estimated that 6.376 billion yuan (6.845 billion yuan in total investment) will be used for the 12 inch CIS IC characteristic process R & D and industrialization project, and 584 million yuan will be used for the CMOS image sensor R & D project.

Gekewei said that under the background of global BSI wafer supply tightening, the project guaranteed the supply of 12 inch BSI wafers through the way of "self built production line and segmented processing", so as to realize the independent control of key production steps of CIS special process.

Specifically, gekewei's business model will change from fabless mode to Fab Lite mode. The production of some BSI image sensor products will change from directly purchasing BSI wafers to first purchasing standard CIS logic circuit wafers, and then independently carrying out special BSI wafer processing processes such as wafer bonding and wafer thinning, so that the company needs to do in terms of personnel composition, technical reserve and management mode Appropriate adjustments and improvements should be made.

This is of great significance to gekewei.

With the gradual improvement of the popularity of multi camera phones, the supply-demand relationship of BSI wafer production capacity has gradually tightened since the second half of 2018. Gekewei admitted that at present, the main competitors in the industry have long-term and stable cooperation with wafer foundry in the supply of 12 inch BSI wafers. As a new supplier in the high pixel CIS market, the company has limited capacity supply for the process, which seriously limits the sales scale of medium and high-level products. "Whether the stable supply of BSI wafer production capacity can be guaranteed will be an important factor affecting performance."

According to the prospectus, Samsung Electronics is the largest supplier of GEKO's microchip manufacturing, and the company's purchase amount of wafer manufacturing from Samsung accounts for about 40%. Samsung Electronics once fell into the whirlpool of trade friction between Japan and South Korea, which affected the shipment.

"Currently, most semiconductor companies generally adopt the fabless model, which means that wafer manufacturing and most of the packaging and testing and other production processes are carried out through outsourcing. However, the foundry of high-end manufacturing process is mainly concentrated in the hands of a few leading suppliers such as Samsung and TSMC, which makes the production and operation of many companies under control. It was the manufacturing and production of high-end chips that restricted Huawei before. Gekewei's self built production line is to prepare for a rainy day. " A private person familiar with the semiconductor field told reporters.

In reply to the reporter's question of "why should we build our own production line", gekewei's relevant person in charge also said that it was mainly for the consideration of independent research and development, "if we have been subject to the relevant supporting production lines, there will be more uncontrollable factors."

Uncertain risk of huge investment

The construction of production line needs huge capital investment, which is the reason why the semiconductor industry generally chooses fabless mode. Now Geke micro IPO has successfully passed the meeting and is about to land on the sci tech innovation board, which will provide strong financing support for its transformation to Fab Lite mode.

No matter for the company or the science and technology innovation board, the total fund-raising amount of 6.96 billion yuan is not a small amount.

At present, among the listed companies, SMIC international and China communications are the top two companies with initial raised funds of 53.2 billion yuan and 10.5 billion yuan respectively; the other three companies with more than 5 billion yuan are qi'anxin (5.7 billion yuan), Kasai biological (5.5 billion yuan) and ConocoPhillips (5.2 billion yuan).

From this point of view, gekewei's fund-raising scale is in the forefront of the science and technology innovation board, and will become the company with the largest amount of fund-raising in the near future.

"The listing of the company is based on the consideration of sustainable development, hoping to help the company become bigger and stronger with the help of the power of the capital market." Gekewei related person in charge told reporters.

However, it should be pointed out that the investment cost of the wafer plant is huge, the requirements for technology and equipment are high, and the return period is relatively long. Some people in the industry also question the feasibility and necessity of the project. "Wafer manufacturing is more difficult and faces greater risks. The profit and recovery cost will take seven to eight years under the condition of ensuring yield and shipment volume. Even Huawei is hesitant about building its own fab. " One semiconductor industry analyst said.

According to the prospectus, the 12 inch CIS IC project is expected to last for two years. It is predicted that after the completion of the project, the financial internal rate of return after income tax is 12.68%, and the investment recovery period (including construction period) after income tax is about 7.67 years.

However, it is difficult to generate short-term benefits in terms of short-term depreciation and short-term amortization of the project. Although the company has fully demonstrated the project, the construction and operation of the project has certain complexity. Whether the company can complete the project construction according to the plan, and whether the management team has enough ability and experience to operate the project is uncertain.

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