Strawbear Entertainment Group, a China-based television producer that counts online streaming platform iQiyi as an investor, floated on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday in a HK$975m ($126m) initial public offering, DealStreetAsia reported.
The company issued 166 million shares for the IPO priced at HK$5.88 each. They opened trading at HK$7.00 each and closed at $10.80. E-commerce platform developer Vipshop, Snow Lake Capital and IDG’s Origin Flair subsidiary were among the anchor investors for the offering.
Founded in 2014, Strawbear develops, produces and distributes drama series for television and online viewing, and will channel the proceeds from the IPO into production activities.
The company has not revealed details of its earlier funding but it raised undisclosed amounts in a 2018 series A1 round and a series A2 round two years later, both of which included iQiyi subsidiary Taurus Holdings.
Xiaofeng Liu, chief executive of Strawbear, is the company’s largest shareholder, with a 43.8% stake post-IPO, while iQiyi holds 14.7%. China Merchants Securities (HK) and China Securities (International) Corporate Finance Company Limited were the joint sponsors and joint representatives for the offering.
China Merchants Securities (HK), China Securities (International) Corporate Finance Company, China Renaissance Securities (Hong Kong), ABCI Securities Company, ABCI Capital and Haitong International Securities Company were among the underwriters for the IPO.
The underwriter list was completed by Bocom International Securities, Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong), CMB International Capital, Futu Securities International (Hong Kong), US Tiger Securities and China Galaxy International Securities (Hong Kong).
