SenseTime Seeks to Raise Up to $768 Million in Hong Kong IPO
(Bloomberg) -- China's biggest artificial intelligence firm SenseTime Group Inc. is seeking to raise as much as $768 million from a Hong Kong initial public offering in a test of investor appetite in volatile stock markets.
The company is offering 1.5 billion shares at between HK$3.85 and HK$3.99 apiece, raising nearly HK$6 billion at the top end of the range, according to the terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg News. Books open on Monday, pricing is expected on Dec. 10 and listing is slated for Dec. 17.Â
The move comes at a time of increased volatility for listings and amid a drought for big IPOs in the Asian financial hub. China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp., the world's largest travel retailer, decided last week to suspend a $5 billion listing in Hong Kong, citing sluggish capital markets and the pandemic. The move indicates just how weak the sentiment is at the moment, analysts said.Â
Adding to woes, Chinese shares listed abroad slumped at the end of last week after Didi Global Inc. said it would delist in the U.S. and list in Hong Kong. The stock slumped 22% in New York on the back of the decision and triggered a sixth day of losses for the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index, which tracks 95 firms listed in the U.S. that conduct a majority of their business in China.
People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last month that SenseTime was seeking to raise at least $1 billion from the share sale. The SoftBank Group Corp.-backed company, which makes AI technology that interprets images and recognizes faces, started gauging investor demand on Nov. 23 and said in its IPO prospectus that it was not involved in any regulatory probe or received any inquiries related to cybersecurity.Â
Several Chinese IPOs have been directly impacted by a wide clampdown by Beijing authorities over companies seeking to go public abroad, including many that hold large data about Chinese citizens.Â
Eight cornerstone investors committed to subscribe for $450 million in SenseTime shares, the terms show, representing about 59% of the offering. They include Mixed-Ownership Reform Fund ($200 million) and Pleiad Fund ($50 million).Â
The Hong Kong Economic Journal reported details of SenseTime's offering earlier citing listing documents. CICC, Haitong and HSBC are joint sponsors for SenseTime's deal.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
