Six Chinese investment banks stand to collect a combined minimum of $41 million in fees tied to chipmaker CXMT’s blockbuster $8.6 billion initial public offering, according to company filings — a welcome boost for an industry that has seen its revenue shrink significantly over the past five years.
The windfall would push total fees from mainland China IPOs this year to approximately $684.62 million, closing in on last year’s $984.75 million, according to data from LSEG. Both figures pale in comparison to the 2022 high-water mark of $4.16 billion, which was fueled by major listings including those of China Mobile and CNOOC.
The share offering is part of a broader recovery in China’s domestic IPO market, driven by government efforts to reduce hurdles for companies in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and robotics seeking to raise capital from public investors — all part of a national push toward technological leadership.
ChangXin Memory Technologies, known as CXMT, opened its IPO for public subscription on Thursday. The company holds the distinction of being China’s largest producer of dynamic random-access memory chips — commonly known as DRAM — which are essential components in smartphones, computers, servers, and a wide range of other electronic devices.
Should the offering reach its $8.6 billion target, it would become not only Asia’s largest IPO of 2025 to date, but also the biggest semiconductor IPO ever conducted on China’s A-share market, eclipsing the record previously set by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp in 2020.
According to IPO filings, China Securities and CICC are serving as the lead sponsors of the share sale. Also participating are China Merchants Securities, Guotai Haitong Securities, Guoyuan Securities, and Huatai United Securities, a subsidiary of Huatai Securities.
CXMT expects to pay total fees of 280.6 million yuan — roughly 0.48% of the total proceeds raised. That figure is dramatically lower than the 4.52% average fee rate for China A-share IPOs so far this year, per LSEG data. Despite the discounted rate, the sheer size of the deal still translates into meaningful earnings for the banks involved.
If investor demand triggers an overallotment option, total proceeds could climb to $9.8 billion, with fees rising to approximately 296 million yuan, the filings indicated.
Shen Meng, a director at boutique investment bank Chanson & Co in Beijing, described the deal’s dual significance. “This high-profile IPO carries both commercial value and strategic importance,” he said. He added that fierce competition among banks to win a role in the offering drives fees down, but noted: “Nevertheless, given CXMT’s huge fundraising size, investment banks can still reap substantial proceeds even with relatively reduced fee rates.”
CICC declined to provide comment on the matter. CXMT, China Securities, China Merchants Securities, Guotai Haitong Securities, Guoyuan Securities, and Huatai United Securities did not respond to requests for comment.
LSEG data shows that China Securities, CICC, Guotai Haitong, and Huatai Securities have all ranked among the top five earners of A-share IPO fees from 2022 through the current year. China Merchants ranked ninth over the same period.
CXMT’s fee rate also compares favorably to other recent large deals. Last month, China Resources New Energy paid 0.65% in fees for its 24.5 billion yuan listing on the Shenzhen exchange. In the United States, SpaceX paid $500 million — about 0.67% of proceeds — for its record-setting $75 billion IPO last month. South Korea’s SK Hynix paid approximately 0.97% of the $26.5 billion it raised through American depositary receipts last week.
