Bloomberg
Kuaishou nearly triples after the largest internet IPO since Uber
(Bloomberg) – Kuaishou Technology, the operator of China’s most popular short video service after Douyin by ByteDance Ltd., made its debut in Hong Kong after a $ 5.4 billion IPO that attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in orders 194% The shares opened at HK $ 338, compared to the IPO price of HK $ 115. The Tencent Holdings Ltd. Supported Business was valued at $ 179 billion. The company sold around 365 million shares at the top of its price range. This is the world’s largest IPO on the Internet since the sale of US stocks valued at $ 8.1 billion in May 2019. That spectacular surge gave Kuaishou a prize rivaling ByteDance, which was funded by $ 180 billion -Dollars searched. If profits continue, this would mark Kuaishou’s second-best debut ever for a $ 1 billion IPO worldwide, data from Bloomberg shows. It joins an already long list of floats that have popped up on their first day of trading in recent months amid a deluge of liquidity and extremely low interest rates. The successful debut will be an encouraging sign for bigger rival ByteDance in discussions to list some of its Hong Kong assets. The TikTok owner, who has long been an alleged IPO candidate, got stuck last year while battling a U.S. ban on its globally popular app after being classified as a national security threat. “A successful listing of Kuaishou will pave the way for its bigger rival,” said Bloomberg Vey-Sern Ling, senior intelligence analyst. “Douyin will be more motivated to get to market and investors can get a better look at the Chinese short video industry with Kuaishou’s regular disclosures.” Kuaishou’s coming-out party broke records in Hong Kong for the number of retail investors who subscribed to the company’s shares and the amount pledged. Approximately 1.4 million mom and pop investors – one in five people in town – submitted orders valued at HKD 1.26 trillion ($ 163 billion), while institutional buyers raised nearly $ 200 billion. Demand matched the frenzy in Hong Kong part of Ant Group Co.’s mega IPO, which saw HK $ 1.3 trillion bids placed on the retail tranche before the proposed $ 17.2 billion offering collapsed . Founded by ex-Google employees Su Hua and Cheng Yixiao as an app that relies on animated GIF sharing, Kuaishou turned to a short video in 2013, and added live streaming in 2016 to watch two of the hottest social media outlets Formats of the world to gain a foothold. As of November 2020, the main Kuaishou app had an average of 264 million daily active users, less than half of the 600 million on Douyin, according to the prospectus. Even so, it grew quickly. In the first nine months of last year, revenue soared 49% to 40.7 billion yuan ($ 6.3 billion) after the company stepped up monetization efforts through advertising and e-commerce. While Kuaishou offers free access to its main platform, the startup takes some of the tips users give their favorite live streamers, run viral challenges, sync with the latest pop songs, and play video games. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp. and China Renaissance were joint sponsors of the deal. (Updates with ByteDance rating in third paragraph) For more articles like this, visit bloomberg.com. Sign up now to stay up to date with the most trusted business news source. © 2021 Bloomberg LP
