Kuaishou Technology, the China-based online video streaming platform developer backed by internet groups Tencent and Baidu, has priced its initial public offering at $5.4bn, Reuters reported today.
The company is floating on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, issuing approximately 365 million shares priced at HK$115 ($14.83) each, at the top of the IPO’s $105 to $115 range. The price valued Kuaishou at $60.9bn and it will list on February 5.
The offering was massively oversubscribed, attracting $162bn of offers, roughly half of which were backed by margin loans, three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Founded in 2011, Kuaishou operates a short-form video app with 776 million monthly active users and 302 million daily active users, skewing to a slightly younger audience than its main rival, Douyin, the app known as TikTok internationally.
Investment and financial services group Fidelity has committed to buying $270m of shares in the offering while Capital Group is investing $500m, Invesco $270m and Morgan Stanley Investment Management $125m, according to figures obtained by Nikkei.
Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Boyu Capital are also purchasing shares through the offering, which comes after more than $4.35bn in venture funding for Kuaishou.
Tencent provided $2bn to lead the company’s $3bn series F round in late 2019 at a reported $28.6bn valuation, participating alongside Temasek, Sequoia Capital China, Boyu Capital and Yunfeng Capital.
Kuaishou reportedly secured $1bn in series E funding from Tencent and Sequoia China in 2018, having closed a $350m series D round led by Tencent in 2017 reportedly valuing it at $18bn to $20bn.
The 2017 round followed an undisclosed amount of series C funding from Baidu and China Media Capital the previous year. Sequoia China and DCM had supplied $10m for the company through a 2014 series B round.
Tencent owned a 17.4% stake prior to the offering while Baidu owned 3.8%, according to the original IPO filing. Bank of America, China Renaissance and Morgan Stanley are joint sponsors for the offering.
