Chinese e-sports video platform Huya Broadcasting is raising up to $165 million by offering 15 million American depositary shares at a price of $10 to $12, according to a filing at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Huya, which is being spun out of NASDAQ-listed Chinese live streaming social media platform YY Inc, would command a fully diluted market value of $2.4 billion at the midpoint of the proposed range, according to IPO adviser Renaissance Capital.
The company plans to trade on the NYSE under ticker HUYA, with Credit Suisse as lead underwriter.
The IPO pricing announcement comes less than a month after Huya raised $461.6 million in a Series B financing round led by Chinese Internet giant Tencent, which is also a backer of its rival Douyu.
As part of the latest financing, Tencent has also obtained a right to purchase additional Huya shares at fair market price to achieve 50.1 per cent of the voting power in Huya, YY Inc said in a Nasdaq-filing.
Founded in 2014, Huya operates a live streaming platform whose content includes video games, music, sports, entertainment and food. It claims to have more than 6 million daily active users.
YY Chief Financial Officer Bing Jin earlier said that with the IPO, Huya aims to attain its own group of investors to fund its long-term growth.
“We remain confident that we have the right strategy in place to drive our financial performance and sustain our rapid growth for the coming quarters and years,” Jin said. Bing Jin, Chief Financial Officer of YY, said.
In May last year, Huya raised $75 million in Series A funding led by Hong Kong-based Ping An Insurance Overseas (Holdings) Limited, a subsidiary of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company.
Others who participated in the round include Banyan Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, Engage Capital, David Li, chairman of YY, and Dong Rongjie, CEO at Huya.
About 110 Chinese companies are listed on Nasdaq, with 17 of them launching IPOs in 2017, according to data from the US exchange. At least 13 are on file to be listed.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Bob McCooey, senior vice-president of Nasdaq’s Listing Services unit said they expect the number of China listings to be higher in 2018, with a 25 to 30 per cent jump from 2017.
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