Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp (小米) yesterday filed documents with Hong Kong’s stock exchange operator for an initial public offering (IPO) that could be the world’s biggest share sale in years.
Beijing-based Xiaomi is the world’s fourth-biggest smartphone maker by shipment volume, according to International Data Corp.
The listing documents provided no financial details about the share sale or the company’s valuation.
Photo: Reuters
The South China Morning Post cited unnamed banking sources as saying Xiaomi plans to raise up to US$10 billion in a deal that would value the company at US$100 billion.
That would make it the biggest IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) US$21.8 billion IPO in 2014 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Xiaomi, founded in 2010, has expanded rapidly on the strength of smartphone handsets priced as low as US$115 and Internet-based marketing and distribution.
The listing documents offered a glimpse of Xiaomi’s finances, with the company reporting that revenue rose by two-thirds last year to 114.6 billion yuan (US$18 billion), including 80 billion yuan from its smartphone division.
Xiaomi’s business also includes partnering with “Internet of Things” companies to develop hundreds of connected lifestyle devices, such as rice cookers, robot vacuum cleaners and coffee makers.
Operating profit tripled to 12.2 billion yuan, but the company still lost nearly 44 billion yuan last year, mainly due to the cost of converting preferred shares held by investors.
Xiaomi’s decision to go public in Hong Kong comes days after the territory’s stock exchange loosened listing rules, an apparent vindication of its efforts to better compete with rival bourses in the race for blockbuster offerings.
Xiaomi is applying for a Hong Kong stock listing with dual share classes that give certain shareholders much more power, which the new rules allow.
The exchange modified its regulations to accommodate such companies after losing Alibaba’s dual-class listing to New York because rules at the time only allowed a single share class.
POOR INTERNAL CONTROLS: Insurance Bureau Director-General Shih Chiung-hwa said the company is expected to get back on track while its chairman is suspended The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday fined Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) NT$27.6 million (US$939,415) for a reckless investment that endangered its solvency, and suspended its chairman Eugene Wu (吳東進) for poor supervision. The penalty is the second-highest in a single case after Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) was fined NT$30 million in September last year and its chairman Du Ying-tzyong (杜英宗) suspended for two years, the commission said. In three rounds of special and regular examinations conducted since last year, the commission found that Shin Kong Life had given too much power to an asset and liability management committee
Sony Corp has cut its estimated Play Station 5 (PS5) production for this fiscal year by 4 million units, down to about 11 million, following production issues with its custom-designed system-on-chip (SOC) for the new console, people familiar with the matter said. The Tokyo-based electronics giant in July boosted orders with suppliers in anticipation of heightened demand for gaming in the holiday season and beyond, as people spend more time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the company has come up against manufacturing issues, such as production yields as low as 50 percent for its SOC, which have cut into
HEAVY INVESTMENT: Moody’s affirmed the firm’s ‘Aa3’ rating with a ‘stable’ outlook due to its leading position in the industry and ability to match customer requirements Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue this year is expected to increase about 21 percent to NT$1.29 trillion (US$44.01 billion) from NT$1.07 trillion last year, driven by strong demand for advanced 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer chips mainly used in smartphones and high-performance computing devices, a Moody’s Investors Service report on Wednesday said. TSMC’s rate of revenue growth next year is to increase to 7.5 percent, the ratings agency said. The company, which supplies 5-nanometer chips for Apple Inc’s new iPad series, has introduced the advanced chips ahead of its competitors and gained a significant share of the market for the foundry industry’s
O2O BICYCLE SHOW: The Taiwan Bicycle Show next year is to be online to offline, with forums, audio-visual conferences and livestreaming of the offline events Local bicycle makers expect demand to continue outpacing supply due to orders triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, with some companies seeing orders back up through next year. “Next year is all full in terms of orders. Our lead time on components is one year,” Giant Manufacturing Co Ltd (巨大機械) chairwoman Bonnie Tu (杜綉珍) told a news conference in Taipei organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to announce next year’s Taipei Cycle Show. The pandemic has reduced bicycle supplies and increased demand around the world, Robert Wu (吳盈進), chairman of KMC (Kuei Meng) International Inc (桂盟國際), one of the world’s
RSS