Haier Group's integrated circuit unit plans to float shares for the first time as it banks on the rapidly growing domestic integrated circuit market, the Shanghai-based firm said yesterday.

Home-grown firms occupy less than 20 percent of the rapidly growing domestic market, which gives them huge potential to expand their share, industry officials said at the International IC-China Conference & Exhibition.

"The IC and electronic component imports are a huge target market for us in China,'' said Oliver Chang, president and chief executive of the Shanghai Haier IC Co.

Shanghai Haier IC, whose investors are the Haier Group and several venture capitalists, worked on the design of an MCU (Micro Controller Unit) with noise-immunity and power-efficiency functions, which are widely used in white home appliances, according to Chang.

"The MCU market is so diversified and no player can have a market share of more than 15 percent,'' said Chang.

He said the firm plans to sell shares in the planned domestic growth market, Hong Kong or Nasdaq.

China's IC market size will double last year's to reach 1.08 trillion yuan (US$152 billion) in 2011, said Wang Qingjiang, a senior trade director at the city's Foreign Economic Relations & Trade Commission.

(Shanghai Daily March 11, 2008)