In this undated photo, Bilibili's logo is shown on a smartphone screen. (PHOTO / VCG)
Video streaming platform Bilibili Inc is looking to raise as much as US$3.2 billion in a second listing in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as the trend of Chinese mainland companies seeking trading footholds in the city gathers pace.
Nasdaq-listed Bilibili is selling 95 million shares in the offering, according to a statement. It has set a maximum price of HK$988 for the portion of the deal reserved for HKSAR’s retail investors, which represents a premium of 12.3 percent to its closing price in the US on Tuesday.
Bilibili is joining a rapidly-expanding group of mainland companies looking to sell shares in the HKSAR, beckoned by the Asian financial center’s hot market for new listings
Bilibili is joining a rapidly-expanding group of mainland companies looking to sell shares in the HKSAR, beckoned by the Asian financial center’s hot market for new listings.
Such share sales gathered pace last year, with some US$17 billion raised from the likes of JD.com Inc and NetEase Inc. More U.S.-traded mainland firms, including Tencent Music Entertainment Group, are planning listings in the HKSAR.
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Bilibili plans to price the offering on March 23. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and UBS Group AG are leading the deal. Shares are expected to start trading on March 29, according to an emailed statement.
The company, whose backers include Tencent Holdings Ltd, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Sony Corp, started in 2009 as a website serving up Japanese animation to eager young viewers in the mainland. It broadened its offering to incorporate anime as well as comics and mobile videogames, generating revenue from advertising, live-streaming and premium memberships.
Companies like Bilibili benefited last year from consumers trapped in their homes by the coronavirus pandemic. The entertainment platform had 202 million average monthly active users in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 55 percent increase over the same period in 2019. Mobile device users accounted for more than 90 percent of monthly active users in 2020, Bilibili’s latest annual report shows.
To be sure, technology stocks have been coming under pressure from investors rotating out of so-called pandemic winners on expectations of an economic recovery thanks to the rollout of coronavirus vaccines.
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The value of Bilibili’s American Depositary Receipts has dropped almost 28 percent from a record high hit in early February. Still, the ADRs are up 885 percent from their 2018 initial public offering price, closing at US$113.31 each on Tuesday.