Tencent-backed Chinese online payment services provider Yeahka Ltd is reportedly planning to raise as much as $300 million through an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong. The digital payment technology company apparently plans to go public as soon as February next year.
According to reports citing sources close to the matter, Yeahka has apparently already filed an application with the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) for its planned listing. The company reportedly submitted the application to the city's bourse operator on November 12.
Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings officially became one of Yeahka's largest shareholders in 2012, just a year after the company was founded. Yeahka's chairman and co-founder, Liu Yingqi, had previously worked at Tencent as the general manager for its online payments platform TenPay. Liu's previous position at Tencent likely played a part in the company's decision to acquire a major stake in Yeahka.
According to the company's preliminary prospectus, some of its largest shareholders apart from Tencent include venture capital firm Greycroft Partners and Japan's Recruit Holdings. The preliminary prospectus also revealed that Yeahka's has chosen ABC International Holdings Ltd, CLSA Ltd, and Nomura Holdings Inc to become its joint sponsors.
Other details of the company's planned IPO have yet to be announced. Its IPO timeline, size, and other details will likely still change as deliberations within the company and negotiations with shareholders continue. Both Yeahka and Tencent had refused to comment any further on the planned listing.
Yeahka is currently China's second-largest non-bank independent QR code payment service provider. In 2017, the company reported that it had over 1.6 million active payment services customers. During that year, the company launched its aggregate payment platform, which essentially made it among the first licensed third-party payment service providers to have an integrated QR code payment solution in China.
In June of 2018, the company reported that it had over 4.8 million active payment service customers. This accounted for about 12 percent of the market during that year. Yeahka also reached a significant milestone in 2018, when it managed to get access to both Union Pay and NetsUnion's network for QR code payments. This allowed Yeahka's platform to reach more than 100 million transactions per day.
Since then, the company has formed various partnerships with a number of Fintech companies domestically and internationally. Combined with its recent acquisition of Tuozhanbao Business earlier in the year, Yeahka has managed to significantly expand its distribution channels throughout China.
