Bilibili Board Gives Green Light to Chase Dual-Primary Listing
Bilibili, a video streaming platform geared towards young generations in China, announced on Wednesday that its board of directors approved a motion to pursue voluntary conversion to a dual-primary listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx).
The board also authorized the company’s senior management to proceed with relevant preparatory work and undertake the necessary procedures to complete the primary conversion. After this move, the company will remain as a dual-listed company on the HKEx’s Main Board and the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Bilibili‘s Class Z ordinary shares and American depositary shares will continue to be traded at both stock exchanges, and will remain mutually fungible.
Dual-listing refers to the listing of the same company on two different stock exchanges. After completing IPOs in the U.S. and Hong Kong, BeiGene, a pharmaceutical company, has been listed on the Shanghai Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market) since December last year.
Bilibili arrived on the Nasdaq in March 2018 and returned to Hong Kong for a second listing in March of last year, bringing in HK$20 billion ($2.56 billion). According to its financial report, as of December 31, 2021, the total amount of cash, cash equivalents, time deposits and short-term investments held by the company was 30.2 billion yuan ($4.76 billion).
After the second listing, Bilibili‘s share price has attracted much attention. Compared with HK$1,052 at the peak, its stock prices in Hong Kong and the U.S. have dropped by nearly 80%. Previously, Goldman Sachs analysts downgraded Bilibili to “neutral” from “buy” due to a possible drop of revenue caused by the slow approval process for game registration by Chinese regulators.
In an earnings call for its 2021 annual financial report, Bilibili executives repeatedly emphasized their goal of narrowing losses to boost investor confidence. On March 3, Bilibili announced that its board of directors had approved a share repurchase plan involving up to $500 million in American depository shares (ADSs) in the next 24 months. In addition, Chen Rui, Bilibili‘s CEO, plans to use his personal funds to purchase the company’s ADSs worth no more than $10 million throughout the next 24 months.
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Bilibili‘s financial report showed that its net loss was 2.099 billion yuan in the fourth quarter last year, compared with 844 million yuan in the same period in 2020. The firm’s adjusted non-GAAP net loss also reached 1.66 billion yuan.
