Kuaishou to raise about $5b in Hong Kong IPO

Chinese mainland short-video platform Kuaishou Technology intends to offer 365.2 million shares for its Hong Kong Public Offering and raise up to $5.42 billion, according to a report by The Paper citing a term sheet released by the company on Jan 26.

The indicative offer price ranges between HK$105 ($13.54) and HK$115 per offer share, and the estimated net proceeds from the global offering will amount to about HK$39.5 billion, according to the Tencent-backed content-sharing company.

Dealing in Kuaishou's Class B shares will commence on the Main Board of HKEX on Feb 5, under the stock code 1024. The Class B shares will be traded in board lots of 100 Class B shares each, according to the term sheet.

Ten shareholders, including the Capital Group Funds, Aranda Investments, GIC, Invesco, Fidelity International, BlackRock, CPP Investments, Sunny Festive, MSIM and ADIA, have become cornerstone investors of Kuaishou, the term sheet showed.

In 2017, 2018 and 2019, Kuaishou's revenue was 8.3 billion yuan ($1.28 billion), 20.3 billion yuan and 39.1 billion yuan, and its adjusted profit was 770 million yuan, 200 million yuan and 1.03 billion yuan, respectively, said The Paper.

Its revenue rose 49 percent to 40.7 billion yuan in the first nine months of 2020.

Kuaishou is among the most widely used social platforms in China with 305 million average daily active users and 769 million average monthly active users of Kuaishou's apps and mini programs in China for the nine months ending Sept 30, 2020, the company said.

It has invested heavily in data and technology infrastructure, with over 6,500 R&D employees as of Sept 30, 2020.