Baidu seeks up to US$3.6 billion in Hong Kong share sale as fundraising in city reaches a record in first two months of the year
- Baidu sets the top-end of its Hong Kong share sale at HK$295, a 12 per cent premium to its US closing price
- The tech giant plans to use share sale proceeds on investing in its AI technologies, including cloud and autonomous driving
Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence giant Baidu is seeking to raise up to HK$28 billion (US$3.6 billion) in its secondary listing in Hong Kong, the latest US-listed mainland tech giant to sell shares in the city.
Still, the international placing tranche, which accounts for 95 per cent of the global offering, could be priced higher than the top-end of HK$295, according to a term sheet seen by the Post, which could enable the company to potentially raise a higher amount from institutional investors. There is an overallotment option of up to 14.3 million additional shares in case of strong investor demand.
The Hong Kong retail tranche kicked off on Friday and will last through next Wednesday. Listing on the main board is scheduled for March 23 and will trade under the stock code “9888”.
Bank of America, Citic Securities, Goldman Sachs are the joint sponsors and global coordinators of the deal.
Baidu’s deal comes amid the highest-ever fundraising – IPOs and secondary listings – totalling US$9.6 billion from 22 deals on the city’s stock exchange in the first two months of the year, data from Refinitiv shows.
