Bilibili eyes up to US$3.2b in Hong Kong second listing

[HONG KONG] Video streaming platform Bilibili is looking to raise as much as US$3.2 billion in a second listing in Hong Kong, as the trend of Chinese companies seeking trading footholds in the city gathers pace.

Nasdaq-listed Bilibili is selling 95 million shares in the offering, according to a statement. It has set a maximum price of HK$988 (S$171.33) for the portion of the deal reserved for Hong Kong's retail investors, which represents a premium of 12.3 per cent to its closing price in the US on Tuesday.

Bilibili is joining a rapidly-expanding group of Chinese companies looking to sell shares in Hong Kong, pressured by tensions between China and the US and beckoned by the Asian financial centre's hot market for new listings.

Such share sales gathered pace last year, with some US$17 billion raised from the likes of JD.com and NetEase. More US-traded mainland firms, including Tencent Music Entertainment Group, are planning listings in Hong Kong.

Bilibili plans to price the offering on March 23. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group., JPMorgan and UBS Group are leading the deal. Shares are expected to start trading on March 29, according to an emailed statement.

The company, whose backers include Tencent, Alibaba and Sony started in 2009 as a website serving up Japanese animation to eager young viewers in China. It broadened its offering to incorporate anime as well as comics and mobile videogames, generating revenue from advertising, live-streaming and premium memberships.

Companies like Bilibili benefited last year from consumers trapped in their homes by the coronavirus pandemic. The entertainment platform had 202 million average monthly active users in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 55 per cent increase over the same period in 2019. Mobile device users accounted for more than 90 per cent of monthly active users in 2020, Bilibili's latest annual report shows.

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