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Xiaomi to Debut in Hong Kong First After Postponing Shanghai IPO

Xiaomi aims to list in Hong Kong before floating Chinese Depositary Receipts in Shanghai.

Xiaomi to Debut in Hong Kong First After Postponing Shanghai IPO
A Xiaomi Corp. Mi A1 dual camera device is attached to a tripod ready to take a photograph during the smartphone’s launch in New Delhi, India, on Sept. 5, 2017. (Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Xiaomi Corp. has decided on a Hong Kong initial public offering before listing in Shanghai, backtracking on a key portion of one of the year’s most anticipated stock market debuts.

The smartphone maker aims to list in the former British colony before floating Chinese Depositary Receipts in Shanghai, the country’s markets regulator said in a statement on its website. It’s unclear when Xiaomi intends to move ahead with the CDR approval process, which had been proceeding at a record pace given the average wait time for IPO approvals stretches to more than a year. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said it’s canceled a listing review originally slated for June 19.

Xiaomi is said to be aiming to raise $10 billion from the world’s largest coming-out party since Alibaba’s in 2014. It said just last week that half of its IPO would be sold to mainland Chinese investors through CDRs, an effort that aligns Xiaomi with the government’s long-term goal of getting its biggest technology firms to list locally. On Tuesday however, an unidentified CSRC official was cited in the China Securities Journal as saying that the watchdog is still perfecting its criteria for CDR and IPO reviews.

Xiaomi survived a challenging 2016 to roar back to growth in 2017, bouncing back by revamping its sales model and expanding in India, where it rivals Samsung Electronics Co. as the biggest vendor. Led by billionaire co-founder Lei Jun, the company’s IPO could be the world’s largest first-time share sale since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. listed in the U.S. in 2014. It’s said to be targeting a valuation of about $75 billion although that number could shift.

“After careful research, the company has decided to implement its Hong Kong and mainland IPO in a measured way,” Xiaomi said in a post on its official Weibo social media account.“We’ll list in Hong Kong before going through the CDR issuance method.”

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Gao Yuan in Beijing at ygao199@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan, Reed Stevenson

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Editorial Board