LED leader reaps IPO riches

Sun Qinghuan, chairman of MLS Co, China's biggest producer of light-emitting diodes, is poised to become a billionaire with an initial public offering.

MLS is planning to sell 44.5 million shares for 21.5 yuan ($3.44) on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, according to a filing on Monday. Sun will own about 357 million shares after the IPO, giving him a net worth of about $1.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Sun, 42, joins a rising number of Chinese entrepreneurs who have become billionaires as investors drive up the values of newly traded companies. The light-bulb maker last year was ranked the world's 10th-biggest for packaged LEDs, according to market research firm IHS Technology.