China's Kuaishou could give Asian IPOs best start to a year since 2010

TaiShang · Jan 27, 2021

Short video app Kuaishou on a mobile phone, January 25, 2018. /Reuters

China's short video platform Kuaishou on Tuesday officially proclaimed its initial public offering (IPO) plan, adding its trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will commence on February 5.

The short video service operator's Hong Kong IPO could be the "best start to a year for stock listings in Asia since 2010," said Bloomberg.

The company, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., will price 365.2 million shares at between HK$105 and $HK115 apiece, the term sheet shows.

There is a so-called greenshoe option to sell a further 54.78 million shares in the 30 days after listing that could take the total amount raised up to $5.7 billion to $6.2 billion.

The IPO will value Kuaishou at between $55.6 billion and $60 billion, pre greenshoe, the term sheet showed. If the extra shares are sold it would take the market capitalization to $56.3 billion to $61.7 billion, Reuters reported.

The company was valued at $30 billion after it raised $3 billion from backers in late 2019.
Ten shareholders, led by Capital Group, have become cornerstone investors accounting for about $2.45 billion, the term sheet showed.

If Kuaishou raises $6.2 billion, it will beat the most recent largest IPO in Hong Kong which was Budweiser Brewing Company's $5.75 billion IPO in September 2019.

Kuaishou, which means "fast hand" in Chinese, operates apps that allow user-uploaded videos as well as livestreaming programs through which vendors can promote consumer products.

The expected IPO price will be set on Friday and Kuaishou shares will start trading on the Hong Kong exchange on February 5.

Kuaishou's prospectus also shows that the online video site's revenue rose from 8.3 billion yuan to 39.1 billion yuan from 2017 through to 2019. As of June 30, 2020, it had secured revenue of 25.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48 percent.

"The company used to make a profit but it ramped up its sales and marketing spending in 2019 and went into a loss," said Sumeet Singh, head of research at Aequitas, who publishes on the Smartkarma platform.
"This spending should normalize over the next few years and it will be back in the black, competition permitting," he said.

"In our view, looking at where domestic and international peers are trading, Kuaishou still offers decent upside from the IPO price."