The Chinese video streaming platform iQIYI on Tuesday filed for an initial public offering (IPO) of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The platform, which offers service similar to Netflix, plans to list its American Depository Shares on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol "IQ." Goldman Sachs (Asia), Credit Suisse, BofA Merrill Lynch, China Renaissance, Citi and UBS Investment Bank are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.
The filing said iQIYI had 50.8 million subscribing members by the end of 2017 and posted an annual revenue of 2. 67 billion dollars while its net losses stood at 574.4 million dollars.
The platform is one of the largest online video streaming platforms in China, which competes fiercely with its rivals Tencent Video and Youku Tudou. These platforms compete for users, usage time and advertising customers. IQIYI is the largest such platform in terms of user time spent and average total monthly active users in 2017, according to data provider iResearch.
Upon the completion of this offering, Baidu, the Chinese search engine giant, will beneficially own all of the company's outstanding high voting Class B ordinary shares and continue to be its controlling shareholder, according to the filing.
IQIYI's move to seek listing on Nasdaq followed a busy year of Chinese IPOs on major U.S. stock exchanges.
In 2017, 26 Chinese businesses went public on American exchanges, 17 of which chose to list on Nasdaq, said Bob McCooey, senior vice president of Nasdaq's Listing Services Unit on Tuesday.
He expected more than 30 Chinese companies to go public in U.S. exchanges this year, and said he would not be surprised to see the number of Chinese IPOs exceed 40.
Over 110 Chinese companies are trading on the Nasdaq as of today, including e-commerce giant Alibaba, online shopping center JD.com, and Baidu. Four Chinese companies are among the Nasdaq 100 Index components, namely JD.com, Baidu, NetEase and Ctrip.
