Kuaishou Technology ads at a subway station in Beijing, on February 3rd.
Photographer: Yan Cong / Bloomberg
Photographer: Yan Cong / Bloomberg
Kuaishou Technology, the operator of China’s most popular short video service to Douyin from ByteDance Ltd., jumped 194% in its Hong Kong debut after an initial $ 5.4 billion public offering that attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in orders.
The shares opened at HK $ 338, compared to the IPO price of HK $ 115, which the firm, which is owned by Tencent Holdings Ltd. supported is valued at $ 179 billion. The company sold shares at the top of its price range in a deal that is considered the largest internet listing in the world since Uber Technologies Inc. ‘s US 8.1 billion US share sale in May 2019.
The Kuaishou Technology Headquarters in Beijing, on February 3rd.
Photographer: Yan Cong / Bloomberg
That spectacular rise offers Kuaishou a price tag that contradicts ByteDance – the last time it sought funds at a A valuation of $ 180 billion – and introducing the nine-year-old video app into the ranks of China’s largest technology corporations. Kuaishou, formerly known for strange depictions of Chinese rural life, gives way to a generation of mega-startups, such as the giant Meituan and the leader Didi, who grew up in the years after Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings.
If profits rise, it will give Kuaishou the second best debut ever for a stock market worth more than $ 1 billion worldwide, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This is in line with an already long list of fluctuations that have appeared on their first trading day over the past few months amid an abundance of liquidity and ultra-low interest rates.
Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp. and China Renaissance were joint sponsors of the agreement. Kuaishou shares rose 166% at HK $ 306 from 13:22 in Hong Kong. The stock could be added to the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index later this month if its market value is below the benchmark 10 highest from Friday’s closing.
The stellar debut will be an encouraging sign for bigger rival ByteDance, who is reportedly in discussions to list some of its assets in Hong Kong. The TikTok owner was a rumor of an IPO candidate and was caught last year in the fight against a US ban on his globally popular app after being labeled a national security threat.
“A successful listing by Kuaishou will pave the way for its bigger competitor,” Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Vey-Sern Ling said. “Douyin will be more motivated to enter the market and investors can gain better insight into China’s short video industry with Kuaishou’s regular disclosure ahead.”
Big profits
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Source: Bloomberg
Breaking records
Kuaishou’s outing party broke records in Hong Kong for the number of retail investors subscribing to its shares and the amount promised in the process. About 1.4 million mom-and-pop investors – one in five people in the city – submitted HK $ 1.26 trillion ($ 163 billion) orders, while institutional buyers pushed up nearly $ 200 billion.
The demand was in line with the madness for the Hong Kong drive of Ant Group Co.’s mega-exchange, which offers HK $ 1.3 billion for its retail amount, before the planned $ 17.2 billion offer collapsed. .
“Growth technology companies are still in high demand,” said Gary Dugan, CEO of the Global CIO Office in Singapore. ‘While the world continues to struggle with the Covid crisis, investors remain focused and invest more in technology stocks with a strong growth story. Therefore, we expect that the demand for these types of IPOs will remain strong and that the premium price premiums are likely to be exceptional. ”
Billionaires
Kuaishou, founded by former Google employees Su Hua and Cheng Yixiao as an app compiled to share animated GIF images, pointed to a short video in 2013 and added live streaming in 2016, which became focal points has in what eventually became two of the most popular social media formats in the world. .
At the opening price of HK $ 338, the net worth of Su rose to more than $ 21.1 billion and Cheng is worth $ 14.7 billion. Two fortune managers’ fortunes are also being increased to more than $ 3 billion.
The Kuaishou Technology app.
Photographer: Roy Liu / Bloomberg
According to the prospectus, as of November 2020, the firm had 264 million daily active users on its main Kuaishou app, less than half of the 600 million on Douyin. Yet it grew rapidly.
Revenue rose 49% to 40.7 billion yuan ($ 6.3 billion) in the first nine months of last year, after the company increased its monetization efforts through advertising and e-commerce. While Kuaishou offers free access to its main platform, the startup takes some tips that give users their favorite live streamers performing viral challenges, lip-synching with the latest pop songs and playing video games.
– With help from Zheping Huang, Edwin Chan, Venus Feng, Ishika Mookerjee and Kevin Kingsbury
(Updates share in fifth paragraph)