Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg
Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg
Kuaishou Technology, the main competitor for ByteDance Ltd. in China, wants to raise as much as $ 5.4 billion in Hong Kong for the largest Internet supplement in the world. Uber Technologies Inc.
The short video startup, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. sells 365 million shares at HK $ 105 to HK $ 115 according to the deal acquired by Bloomberg News. The company will start taking investor orders from Monday to January 29 and will be listed on February 5th.
Kuaishou is attempting the largest internet exchange since Uber’s $ 8.1 billion US share sale in May 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Chinese company’s launch will also boost the already hot capital market in Hong Kong and could become the largest Asia since Budweiser Brewing Co.
Kuaishou, which in Chinese means ‘quick hand’, is one of China’s biggest internet success stories of the past decade, part of a generation of startups that thrived on support from Tencent. Along with TikTok parent ByteDance, the outfit that Su Hua put together in 2013 was a breakthrough in live streaming and bite-size video format that has since been around the world by Facebook Inc. adopted. bigger competitor, last valued at $ 180 billion.
Kuaishou’s offer attracted ten cornerstone investors, who agreed to subscribe for $ 2.45 billion worth of shares, based on the center of the marketed range. The group includes The Capital Group, Temasek Holdings Pte, GIC Pte, The terms show BlackRock Inc. and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. The cornerstone investors agreed to hold shares for six months in exchange for early, guaranteed allotment.
Kuaishou’s valuation could more than double after its IPO in Hong Kong. A high-value price will value the Chinese business at $ 60.9 billion, compared to the $ 28.6 billion it achieved in a round of financing last year, according to Pitchbook. Even on the low side of the range, Kuaishou will still be valued at $ 55.6 billion.
ByteDance has long been a rumored IPO candidate, but got stuck last year in the fight against a US ban on TikTok after the video service national security threat. The social media giant was in the process of raising $ 2 billion before listing some of its Hong Kong businesses, Bloomberg News reported in November.
According to September, Kuaishou had approximately 262 million daily active users prospectus. That’s still less than half of the 600 million on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. That said, Kuaishou’s revenue rose 49% to 40.7 billion yuan ($ 6.3 billion) in the first nine months of last year, after increasing its monetization efforts through advertising and e-commerce. While offering free access to its main platform, the startup uses some tips that give users their favorite live streamers performing viral challenges, lip-syncing with the latest pop songs, and playing video games.
Tencent has about 21.6% in Kuaishou, and other supporters include venture capital firms DCM, DST Global and Sequoia Capital China, according to the prospectus. Shares in Tencent rose to 6.4% in Hong Kong early Monday, reaching an all-time high.
Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp. and China Renaissance Holdings Ltd. are joint sponsors of the transaction.
– With help by Dominic Lau and Zheping Huang
(Add Kuaishou’s valuation in sixth paragraph.)