SenseTime Relaunches IPO, Trading to Start December 30
SenseTime, a Chinese artificial intelligence technology firm, announced on Monday that it would restart its Hong Kong IPO process. This listing is consistent with the previous one in terms of issuance scale, amount of funds raised and price range. A total of 1.5 billion Class B shares are to be sold, with a price range of HK$3.85 to HK$3.99 ($0.49 – $0.51) per share, raising about HK$6 billion ($768 million) in total.
The subscription of the stock will close at noon on December 23, and SenseTime is expected to be officially listed on December 30. CICC, Haitong International Securities Group Limited and HSBC are all acting as co-sponsors.
On December 10, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that SenseTime was included in its list of Chinese military-related enterprises. This was the second time that U.S. officials have cracked down on SenseTime after it was included on the entity list in 2019.
On the morning of December 11, SenseTime issued an official statement in response to being labelled as such: “We strongly oppose this decision and related allegations. We believe that these are groundless and reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of our company. The development of science and technology should not be affected by geopolitics.”
On December 13, according to its report delivered at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the board of directors announced that the global offering and listing would be delayed.
SEE ALSO: Chinese Firm SenseTime Postpones Hong Kong IPO in Wake of US Blacklisting
It is worth noting that, after the issuance was restarted, the cornerstone investors of SenseTime changed. Among them, the mixed ownership reform fund initiated by China Chengtong Holdings Group Ltd., Shanghai Guosheng (Hong Kong), Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Equity Investment Fund and SAIC Hong Kong remained unchanged. Meanwhile, Shanghai Xuhui Capital, Guotai Junan Securities Investment, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park Venture Capital Fund, C-MER International Eye Care Group, and Taizhou Culture & Tourism were newly introduced.
