After posting a net loss of more than $280 million last year, Tencent-backed Chinese e-sports live streaming platform Huya has filed to raise $500 million in a secondary public offering, according to a filing at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filing comes less than a year after Huya raised $180 million by selling 15 million American depositary shares (ADS) on the New York Stock Exchange, giving the company a fully diluted market value of over $2.4 billion.
In the latest filing, Huya has not specified the amount of shares it plans to sell and the price of the offering. It has hired Goldman Sachs Asia, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, and Jefferies as bookrunners.
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.
Its live streaming content covered over 3,300 games, including mobile, PC and console games as of December 31, 2018.
Huya is a spinoff of Nasdaq-listed YY Inc, a popular interactive entertainment platform, and is backed by Chinese tech giants, Tencent Holdings. In its latest financial report for the fourth quarter, Huya said it doubled its revenue year-over-year to $218.9 million.
For the entire 2018, however, the company saw its net loss widen to Rmb1.9 billion ($281.8 million) from just Rmb81 million ($12.5 million) in 2017 and Rmb625.6 million ($93 million) in 2016.
The company said it will utilise 10-15 per cent of the proceeds for future overseas expansion opportunities and potential strategic investments and merger as well as acquisition opportunities.
In May 2018, the company raised $461.6 million in a Series B financing round led by Tencent, which is also a backer of Huya’s rival Douyu. Its $75-million Series A in 2017 was led by Ping An.
China had the world’s largest games market in terms of revenues and gamers in 2018, according to the Frost & Sullivan Report. The country had 687 million gamers in 2018, and is expected to have 891 million gamers in 2023.
E-sports has become a mainstream entertainment option that has attracted growing attention on social media in China.
China’s e-sports market had the largest gamer base in the world with approximately 266 million gamers in 2018, representing a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 21.7% since 2015 and the number of gamers is expected to reach 459 million by 2023, according to the Frost & Sullivan Report.
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