Baidu’s iQiyi Picks Banks for Hong Kong Second Listing
Baidu’s iQiyi Picks Banks for Hong Kong Second Listing
(Bloomberg) -- U.S.-traded Chinese streaming video site iQiyi Inc. has picked banks for its Hong Kong second listing, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Netflix-style service is working with advisers including Bank of America Corp., CLSA Ltd. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on the share sale, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. The listing could take place as soon as the end of this year, they said.
iQiyi, a subsidiary of Internet search giant Baidu Inc., could raise at least $500 million in the share sale, the people said.
Deliberations are ongoing and the company could decide to delay or scrap its listing plan, the people said. Other banks could be added to the lineup, they said.
Representatives for Bank of America, CLSA and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Representatives for Baidu and iQiyi couldn’t immediately respond to requests for comment made during a holiday in China.
The potential listing comes as Chinese firms with listings on U.S. exchanges have suffered sharp declines from an ongoing crackdown by regulators, wiping billions of dollars off the market value of technology firms in particular. iQiyi was ordered in May by the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau to suspend taping of a hit youth-oriented show for unspecified problems, according to a WeChat statement.
iQiyi’s library includes its own original movies and TV shows as well as licensed and user-generated content. The company raised about $2.4 billion in a New York initial public offering in 2018. The service led rivals Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Youku with 579.1 million monthly active users in June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.
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