Huya, the gaming-themed subsidiary of China-based livestreaming platform operator YY, will raise $180m from an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange today.
The offering will consist of 15 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) priced at $12 each, the top of its $10 to $12 range.
Huya operates what it claims is China’s most popular live game streaming platform, with almost 87 million monthly active users. YY launched the Huya platform in 2014 before it was officially spun out at the start of 2017.
The proceeds will support the company’s content and eSports partner ecosystem as it looks to beef up its content, in addition to research and development, marketing and the expansion of its services. Huya made a $12.4m loss in 2017 from almost $336m in revenue.
YY’s share of Huya will be diluted from 48.1% to 44.5% in the offering. Internet group Tencent provided $462m of funding for Huya in March this year and has a 34.6% share that will be cut to 32%.
Huya had previously raised $75m in a May 2017 series A round led by a subsidiary of insurance group Ping An that included Banyan Partners, Morningside Ventures, Engage Capital, Huya chief executive Rongjie Dong and YY CEO David Xueling Li in.
Joint bookrunners Credit Suisse Securities (USA), Goldman Sachs (Asia) and UBS Securities and co-manager Needham & Company have a 30-day option to buy a further 2.25 million ADSs, which would increase the size of the offering to $207m.