Baidu set to raise US$3.1 billion in Hong Kong secondary listing at HK$252 per share
Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence giant Baidu is set to raise US$3.08 billion (HK$23.9 billion) after pricing its Hong Kong secondary listing at HK$252 per share, the company said.
Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.
A Baidu spokeswoman declined to comment on pricing, saying that an announcement is pending.
Chinese search engine giant Baidu will start trading in Hong Kong after its US$3 billion share sale. Photo: Bloomberg alt=Chinese search engine giant Baidu will start trading in Hong Kong after its US$3 billion share sale. Photo: Bloomberg>
Baidu is selling 95 million shares, or about 3.4 per cent of its share capital. There is an overallotment option to sell up to 14.3 million more shares.
Listing on the main board is scheduled for March 23, it will trade under stock code "9888".
Baidu's share sale added to the 26 IPOs that were completed year-to-date, which have raised US$10.8 billion, five times higher than the volume during the same period a year ago, data from Refinitiv shows.
The Beijing-based company said last week that its international placing tranche, which accounts for 95 per cent of the global offering, could be priced higher than the HK$295 top-end it had committed to retail investors. Still, the final price was contingent on its US stock performance, and investors' demand, it added.
The internet giant plans to use part of the proceeds from the share sale to invest in its AI technology, including its AI cloud solutions, and autonomous driving platform called Apollo.
Bank of America, Citic Securities, Goldman Sachs are the joint sponsors and global coordinators of the deal.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2021 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
