Xiaomi supplier Viomi plans US$200mil IPO

HONG KONG: Viomi, a supplier of Internetconnected home appliances to Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp, is planning a US initial public offering (IPO), according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The four-year-old company could seek about US$200mil in the share sale, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Viomi aims to list as soon as this year, one of the people said.

Viomi, based in the southern Chinese city of Foshan, counts Sequoia Capital and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte among its investors, according to its website. Any deal would add to the US$6bil raised in US firsttime share sales by Chinese companies this year, up from US$4bil during all of last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The company would become the second Xiaomi partner to go public, after fitness-tracker maker Huami Corp. raised US$126.5mil in a US IPO in February.

Shares of Huami have risen 2.7% since they began trading, trailing the 6.8% gain in the S&P 500 Index over the same period. That deal was followed by Xiaomi itself, which completed a US$5.4bil Hong Kong stock offering in June.

The website of Viomi features a large photograph of founder Chen Xiaoping wearing a dark turtleneck reminiscent of the wardrobe favoured by late Apple Inc chief executive officer Steve Jobs. Calls to a Viomi phone number listed in Chinese corporate registry filings weren’t answered.

Viomi’s dishwashers, air and water purifiers can be controlled via the company’s mobile app. Its smart refrigerator has a speech recognition function that understands commands such as resetting the temperature, picking up phone calls, playing music and requests for recipe recommendations.