Weibo set to raise US$193 million from Hong Kong offer, much lower than the US$547 million it had hoped for
- China’s Twitter will start trading next Wednesday on Hong Kong’s main board under the stock code ‘9898’
- The popular microblogging platform’s secondary listing comes as Chinese companies flock to list closer to home amid increasing scrutiny by US regulators
It expects the total proceeds from the secondary listing to reach HK$1.5 billion (US$193 million), sharply lower than the US$547.3 million the company hoped for earlier. Weibo also has an overallotment option to sell an extra 1.65 million shares, or about 15 per cent of the original offering.
The Nasdaq-listed Weibo filed a draft prospectus with the Hong Kong stock exchange on November 18. A flurry of US-listed Chinese technology companies are turning to Hong Kong for secondary listings as US regulators increase their scrutiny of Chinese firms, which will allow them to minimise the risk in the event of a delisting from US capital markets.
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Chinese social media site Weibo suspends K-pop fan accounts, including BTS follower’s page
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act requires foreign companies listed in the US to declare they are not owned or controlled by a foreign government and allow them to be inspected by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.