Hollywood studio STX poised to be first US firm to raise funds in Hong Kong with August IPO

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Maurice Compte and Gerard Butler star in Den Of Thieves, produced by STX. Photo: SCMP/Handout

Published: 9:09am, 16 Jul 2018Updated: 9:49am, 16 Jul 2018

STX Productions LLC, the Hollywood studio behind Jackie Chan’s The Foreigner, could go public in Hong Kong as early as August, according to the chief executive of one of its biggest investors, becoming the first US company to raise capital in the city under new fundraising regulations.

The company, based in Burbank, California, has picked Hong Kong’s capital market “because the city will offer a better understanding of STX’s business strengths, which marry Hollywood’s storytelling know-how with the Chinese market,” said John Zhao, chief executive of Hony Capital. Zhao did not divulge the financial terms of STX’s fundraising plans.

The plan could be another feather in the cap for Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX), which pushed through the city’s biggest overhaul in listing regulations last year with the securities regulator. The new rules provide an easier revenue to raise capital for foreign companies, stapled securities, technology start-ups with multiple classes of stocks, and biotechnology research teams before they even earn a revenue.

STX counts some of the biggest names of Hong Kong’s media and entertainment industry as investors, including Richard Li Tzar-kai’s PCCW and China’s biggest games publisher Tencent. Some of the films to have come out of its production include The Foreigner, Den of Thieves, and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

John Zhao, CEO of Hony Capital, during an interview at Renaissance Harbour View Hotel in Wan Chai on 16 January 2012.

The Foreigner, which grossed US$144 million globally, was hailed as one of the most successful co-productions between Hollywood and China STX will co-develop a Jason Statham film with Tencent, and co-produce a sci-fi movie called Steel Soldiers with Alibaba Pictures, a unit of this newspaper’s owner Alibaba Group Holdings.

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