Kuaishou Passes HKEX Hearing, Plans to List in Hong Kong on Feb. 5

Viral Chinese short video sharing platform Kuaishou passed the listing hearing of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) on the afternoon of Jan. 14, and the Tencent-backed company plans to publicly trade on HKEX on Feb. 5.

According to the company’s prospectus, the average daily active users (DAUs) and average monthly active users (MAUs) of Kuaishou’s Chinese apps and mini-programs were 302 million and 776 million, respectively, for the six months ended June 30, 2020.

The company sought to raise up to $5 billion in the public sale, Reuters previously reported.

Founded in March 2011, TikTok’s biggest competitor in China started as GIF animation software and then switched the business direction to short videos, which later turned out to be a hit in the domestic market.

The past few years have seen steep growth for the company as its revenue rose from 8.3 billion yuan in 2017 to 20.3 billion yuan in 2018, and further to 39.1 billion yuan in 2019.

Kuaishou achieved an operating income of 25.3 billion yuan in the first half of 2020, compared with the same period last year, witnessing an increase of 48%.

Livestreaming sales, online marketing services, e-commerce business and online games constitute the main source of revenue for Kuaishou.

Su Hua, Kuaishou CEO and founder, revealed that the company expected the number of fast-handed users to grow by 20% in the next four years, according to Chinese finance media Beike Caijing, citing people familiar with the matter.

SEE ALSO: Short Video App Kuaishou Aims for February IPO in Hong Kong: Report

It has also been reported that Nicholas Chong, Kuaishou’s chief financial officer, has previously visited most of the funds that may be willing to serve as the cornerstone investors, including Blackstone Group.