CXMT IPO Debut: China's $8.6B Memory Listing Hits Shanghai as RAM Shortage Lifts UK Laptop and Phone Prices

Memory accounts for up to a fifth of the cost of building a handset. (Credit: IBTimes UK. Images: Geekerwan CC BY 3.0), Quintin Soloviev (CC BY 4.0)

CXMT raised 57.92B yuan, or $8.6B (£6.5B), before its shares reached the Shanghai market on Monday, then watched them open at 49.50 yuan, against the 8.66 yuan investors had paid. The squeeze in memory chips that made the Hefei company so valuable is the same one Currys has warned will push up what British shoppers pay for laptops and handsets later this year.

The first session took the chipmaker past every other business listed on the mainland, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Its value moved from about $85.5B (£64B) at the offer to roughly 3.3 trillion yuan, or $487B (£366B), within minutes of the open, a rise of 472%. It climbed further as the session went on, reaching 54.65 yuan and about 3.65 trillion yuan, or $539B (£405B), by the middle of the day.