Maoyan Weiying, a China-based mobile ticketing platform backed by corporates Tencent, Meituan Dianping and Enlight Media, has filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong.
The company submitted the filing under the name Entertainment Plus and did not include any financial terms, though reports in January this year suggested it would be seeking approximately $1bn in proceeds.
Maoyan Weiying is the result of a merger between two online ticketing services, Mayoan and Weiying, in September 2017. The company claimed in its filing that it held a market share of 60.9% for cinema tickets by gross merchandise volume in the first half of 2018 in China.
Maoyan was established in 2012 by group buying service Meituan – before the latter merged with local listings platform Dianping – and spun out in April 2016. Production company Enlight Media paid $384m for a reported 57.4% stake in Maoyan the following month.
Weiying had raised at least $1.03bn in funding before the merger. Internet group Tencent, property development conglomerate Dalian Wanda and trading group Shanghai Gangtai first backed a $105m series B round in 2015.
Weiying’s other pre-merger investors include mobile game publisher iDreamSky, GGV Capital, Beijing Cultural Assets Fund, CMC Holdings, Ocean Capital Group, China Everbright, Wenzi Huasha, Shandong Luxin Investment Holdings and eCapital.
Tencent most recently put $150m into the merged business at a $3bn valuation in September 2017.
Proceeds from the initial public offering will go towards further platform development, research and development, sales and marketing activities, and potential acquisitions and working capital.
Enlight Media currently owns a 20% stake in Maoyan Weiying, while Tencent has a 16.3% shareholding and Meituan Dianping owns approximately 8.6%.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley are the joint sponsors for the proposed offering, while China Renaissance is acting as financial adviser.