The first quantum technology to list as an initial public offering in China will likely be a quantum communication firm, QuantumCTek, according to Yicai Global.
The online Chinese publication recently announced that Shanghai’s Star Market, the Shanghai Stock Exchange approved the public listing of QuantumCTek. The Star Market is the eastern city’s new Nasdaq-style tech board.
The firm plans to raise CNY304 million, or about $43.3 million, by issuing 20 million shares, the Hefei-based developer of quantum information products said in its prospectus. More than four-fifths of that will be used for a network equipment project and the rest to build a research & development center, according to Yicai Global.
Founded in 2009, QuantumCTek has independent intellectual property rights on core quantum cryptography technologies and its clients include related network builders and system integrators, according to its prospectus.
China is considered a pioneer in long-distance quantum communications for many years. In 2016, a pioneering Pan Jianwei-led team sent the Micius satellite to space to help develop safer and more efficient ways of transmitting information. Pan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has an 11 percent stake in QuantumCTek.
However, the controlling equity holder of QuantumCTek is the asset management unit of Hefei’s University of Science and Technology of China, a leader in the scientific field, holding an 18 percent stake.
QuantumCTek posted CNY295.6 million revenue and CNY32.4 million in net profit in the first three quarters of this year, its filing shows.
