China’s largest movie ticketing app Maoyan, backed by Tencent, to raise up to US$350 million in Hong Kong IPO

Maoyan is backed by Tencent, Beijing Enlight Media, and Meituan-Dianping

It rivals Alibaba’s Taopiaopiao in China’s online ticketing, where the two account for more than 90 per cent of market share

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People wait for tickets at a ticket office of a movie theatre in Wuhan, Hubei province, in this August 13, 2013 file photo. Warner Brothers and investment firm China Media Capital (CMC) are forming a joint venture to develop Chinese-language movies, adding to a wave of tie-ups between Hollywood studios and Chinese partners to tap China's fast-growing box office. The joint venture, Flagship Entertainment Group Ltd, is being launched ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's official visit to the United States next week and underscores the growing influence of Chinese movies around the world. China's box office takings, set to hit $8.9 billion in 2019 from $5 billion this year, according to PwC, are fast catching up with the United States, but global studios have a tough time keeping on the right side of the censors and getting around a strict quota system for imported films. To match story WARNERBROTHERS-CHINAVENTURE/ REUTERS/Darley Shen/Files CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES I

Published: 12:30pm, 18 Jan 2019Updated: 10:55pm, 18 Jan 2019

Maoyan Entertainment, China’s largest movie ticketing app backed by the country’s biggest social network operator and games publisher, is planning to raise funds through an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

The Beijing-based company, with Tencent Holdings as its second-biggest shareholder, plans to sell 132.377 million shares of between HK$14.8 and HK$20.4 per share, raising up to HK$2.7 billion (US$350 million) in capital, according to a term sheet obtained by the South China Morning Post.

Maoyan’s fundraising plan comes after a 14 per cent decline in Hong Kong’s benchmark stock index last year. The company, which helped fund the latest Transformers movie, was in talks with investment bankers to raise as much as US$1 billion in capital, according to a January 2018 Bloomberg report that cited unnamed people with knowledge of the matter.

The latest fundraising attempt features Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley as joint sponsors.

The company will start taking orders from institutional investors on Friday and is scheduled to list on January 31. Up to 10 per cent of the offering will be open to retail investors in Hong Kong, running from next Monday to Thursday.

Chinese films overtake Hollywood at the box office in the first half

The upcoming IPO will be anchored by two cornerstone investors, with IMAX Hong Kong agreeing to buy US$15 million of shares, while Welight Capital has pledged US$3 million.