ArcSoft aims to raise CNY 1.33 billion (USD 194 million) through its IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR board.
Primary investors are confident about the firm's prospects. Pricing its Star Market IPO at CNY 28.88 (USD 4.20) per share, ArcSoft set a price-to-earnings ratio of 74.41 – the second highest (after AMEC’s astounding 170.75) figure on the list of 25 companies.
Existence of the opinion that the STAR Market has nothing to do with China’s intention to act globally is logical: the vast majority of the enterprises that are preparing to list on the new board, sure enough, belong to the local value chains. Yet there are some special cases. ArcSoft is one of them.
Founded in 1994, the California-based company has been developing and selling digital media software and firmware solutions across the wide gamut of technological circuits including mobile imaging technology, gesture recognition, face and object detection, recognition and tracking, stereoscopic, consumer imaging software, and consumer apps. Recently, on the wave of AI-related hubbub, its focus shifted to the so-called computer vision.
It’s hard to miss ArcSoft as four (Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo) out of five leading global smartphone producers are in the firm’s client base. Autonomous driving is another big business direction of the smart camera manufacturer. According to the company's official website, its smart car products are versatile and easy-to-employ.
Solid financial performance and huge (over 30% of the operating income over the last three years) R&D expense single ArcSoft out. The software developer has been growing in scale since 2016: it hired almost 200 new employees, most of whom are software engineers and other professionals directly focused on the R&D.
As technology penetrates our society, making algorithms optimize the way we act, more digital data need to be collected. Visual data is a vital part of a plethora of modern “smart” schemes. Chinese asset-management company Guosheng Securities expects the global smart camera market to grow with a CAGR of over 30% within the next three years. According to the firm, the market size will approach USD 8 billion in 2021.