Huawei’s smartphone spinoff Honor plans IPO.

This move underscores Honor’s aggressive push in the smartphone market as it looks to tackle Apple and Samsung head-on in the high-end sector.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Honor, a spinoff of Huawei, announced it plans to go public.

“Honor will continue to optimize its shareholding structure, attract diversified capital, and enter the capital market through an IPO (initial public offering),” the company said.

Huawei was forced to sell Honor in 2020 to a consortium of buyers, including the government of Shenzhen, the city where Huawei is headquartered. As a result of numerous U.S. sanctions on Huawei, its smartphone business was crippled as it was cut off from critical technologies such as software and semiconductors.

In order to save the brand and allow it to continue operating, Honor was spun off. Honor was a mid-range brand that had success in a limited number of markets under Huawei. However, it wants to compete with Apple and Samsung in the premium tier of the smartphone market.

In China, Honor has the largest market share, but it is still a small player in the global market because it has not built a brand as yet, so it has a long way to go. Two expensive foldable phones have been launched by the company in order to help the company accomplish that goal.

As part of the preparation for the IPO, the smartphone maker said it would start making changes to its products.

In order to meet the relevant governance and regulatory requirements, Honor stated that the board will gradually be restructured as the company begins the IPO preparation process, in accordance with the standards of a listed company, in order to embrace greater diversity in order to meet the relevant IPO requirements.