A new thread for Cambridge Silicon Radio, a bluetooth play for 2004.

Cambridge Silicon Radio Holdings Ltd, the Bluetooth technology group that is about to list on the London Stock Exchange, said its offering will be priced at 160-200 pence a share.

The indicative price range corresponds to an offer size of 54-68 mln stg and a market capitalisation for the company of 192-239 mln stg after flotation.

CSR designs and manufactures single-chip radio devices - focusing initially on solutions for the 2.4GHz Bluetooth personal area networking standard. The background and experience of our development team give CSR a unique advantage to help OEMs exploit the new wave of wireless networking, allowing us to offer the most highly integrated single-chip Bluetooth solutions, which are based on commodity CMOS technology with all its inherent advantages.

www.csr.com

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CSR, which has secured over 70 mln usd of funding from a number of investors including Compaq Corp, Philips Electronics NV, Sony Corp, Intel Corp and 3i Group PLC, was founded in 1998.

The company claims on its Website to be the world's leading provider of Bluetooth, accounting for 60 pct of all Bluetooth end-products.

Bluetooth is a low-cost, short-range radio link between mobile PCs, mobile phones and other devices, enabling users to connect a wide range of devices easily and simply, without the need for cables.

philj66

What was that about market cap?

The indicative price range corresponds to an offer size of 54-68 mln stg and a market capitalisation for the company of 192-239 mln stg after flotation.

26 FEBRUARY 2004



NOT FOR PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN OR
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (INCLUDING ITS TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS)

CSR PLC

Announcement of Offer Price of 200 pence per share



CSR PLC ("CSR" or the "Company"), a leading developer and provider of Bluetooth
solutions, announces the offer price (the "Offer Price") in connection with the
Company's listing on the London Stock Exchange of 200 pence per share. This is
the top of the initial price range set by the Company at the start of the offer
process.



Highlights of the Offer


* The Offer comprises an aggregate of 39,371,539 shares, corresponding
to a total offer size of #78.7 million. Of this, 19,443,847 shares will be new
ordinary shares issued by CSR.


* Based on the OfferPrice of 200 pence per share, and the number of
shares in issue of 120,177,235, the market capitalisation of the Company at
listing will be approximately #240 million


* The offer attracted very significant demand from quality institutional
investors across the world. Shares allocated in the offer have been placed with
investors in the UK, Europe, the United States and elsewhere. In response to
this strong demand from investors, the size of the offer has been increased by
approximately 5.6 million shares (approximately 14%) from the size originally
set by the Company at the start of the offer process. This was achieved by
increasing the number of shares sold by existing shareholders. The number of
shares issued by the Company, and the number sold by the executive directors,
remains unchanged.


* The Employee Offer was also successful, with around 75% of employees
applying for shares.


* Conditional dealings will commence at 0800 on 26 February 2004 on the
London Stock Exchange. It is expected that the listing will become effective
and unconditional dealings will commence at 0800 on 2 March 2004 under the
ticker symbol CSR.L.


* In connection with the offer, CSFB has been granted an option (the "
Overallotment Option") by certain shareholders selling in the offer to purchase
up to an additional 5,072,308 shares at the Offer Price to cover
over-allotments, if any, and to cover short positions arising from stabilisation
transactions. The Over-allotment Option will be exercisable for a period of 30
days after the admission of the ordinary shares to the Official List of the
United Kingdom Listing Authority.


* Credit Suisse First Boston ("CSFB") acted as sole bookrunner and
sponsor for the flotation. CSFB and Cazenove acted as joint lead managers and
will act as joint brokers to CSR. SG Cowen acted as US co-manager.



Commenting on today's announcement, John Hodgson, CEO of CSR, said:


"We are delighted with the very strong levels of interest and participation in
the Offer from investors all over the world. It demonstrates that investors
recognise the potential within CSR and have confidence in our ability to drive
future growth. I am also particularly pleased that so many of our employees have
taken this opportunity to show their commitment to CSR by participating in the
Employee Offer. We look forward to life as a listed company as we believe it will
help us consolidate our position in thefast growing Bluetooth market."

Shares now trading on pre-market at 240p so the institutions have made a nice fat 20% profit straight off. Did the little guys get a look-in????? Did we hell.

A couple of my friends were able to buy in today (telephone trading). I may dip in next week if comdirect have them listed then, depending on what happens to the price on Mon or Tues.

These new tech stock issues can be pushed too high when first available and it might be better to wait until the dust settles. On the other hand if they continue to climb up does one want to fail to get on board. It's never easy is it?

Chandos

Thanks Chandos. Yes I see that Hargreaves Lansdown Online has them listed (currently 245p!). Bit steep to take an immediate 20% hit!

I bit the bullet and bought in this morning at 254p. Now up to 260p and counting...

Anyone else interested in this stock? The big boys have piled in - Fidelity took a huge slug (see RNS on section 198 notices). More to come I think. The stock lists unconditionally on Thursday.

beaufort1 - Take a look at WLF (Wolfson) to see how their share price behaved post float. In the same way I expect there to be euphoria for a while then when the price stabilisation stops there will be a *small* mark down. It depends if you want to maximise profit or take a dead cert so far as decision to buy and when?

Since CSR are essentially a WLF but 5 months behind (too long to explain why) expect this share will go to 300p over then next quarter. Strong profits and growth from WLF bode well for CSR although must admit they are more of a "one trick pony" as compared to WLF.

Good luck.

Thanks H2W. I agree with all you say and in particular all depends on whether Bluetooth really flies or is another Betamax in the making. If it gets to 300p will probably bale out then (depending on the timescale). I anticipate it will continue to climb gently for the next few days, with maybe a spike on Thursday.

There was very strong institutional interest in the float - heavily oversubscribed.

beaufort1 - personally I could never quite understand why CSR chose to focus purely on bluetooth instead of the more ubiquitious 802.11[a,b,g] standards. Seems like WIFI will rule the world (via McDs and Starbucks).

Bluetooth has a lot of bad press with relatively slow data transfer rates and losing connectivity with the base unit - not good if you are on the receiving end. WIFI just gets better and better.

For this reason I rate them a much higher risk company than Wolfson.

Share price upwards movement has been good so far. Now 4.00. How long can it last?

Erik

This share has had a fantastic run, time for a breather or has the peak been reached?

In terms of headline numbers it is a well over bought share!!

But not overbought when you see today's statement! I see it touched 4.50 briefly early today, but is now down to 4.15. One to hold for another doubling over the next twelve months, I think.

ARM Holdings plc is currently on a prospective PE for 2004 of about 44. Applying that to ABN AMRO's fairly conservative estimate for CSR of EPS of 17.67p for 2004, and you get a target price of about 775p. So plenty of headroom...

Good to see it back above 4.00 again! I did manage to buy a few more at 3.62 on the way down - too soon I suppose, I should have waited until it started climbing before jumping in. I still think this could be over 8.00 by mid summer, based on comparisons with ARM's share price.

Over reaction today with that large drop. Results were excellent, only dampner was a slight drop in revenues for the next quarter but then back into full swing after that. So no real worries, broker reiterated their buy statements today aswell.

Well, it's back to 4.00 again, but hardly the "over 8.00 by mid summer" I hoped for in Jan. Still see it as worth holding for the mid term though.

Superb results announced today, and good forecast going forward. Well over 5.00 now and more to go, I think, though my mid summer target of 8.00 is unlikely to met, I guess.

Excellent update today, and good price reaction - up some 15% to 6.40. We could see 8.00 by the end of the year, but that will depend very much on the guidance for the next quarter, due November 2nd. ABN Amro now has a target price of 7.50 and has upgraded from add to buy.

I find it strange that nobody here seems interested in a tech share which has gone up by some 175% since flotation in Feb. 2004, and by some 133% since May this year. Is it because it is too big (FTSE 250) or because the management play it so low key?

Hopefully a re-rating is underway and we may see 10.00 before too long - 6.98 now- and if it were ever to get onto the same PE as ARM Holdings holders would really be laughing all the way to the Bank.