Tencent-backed Kuaishou Technology is reportedly planning to launch an initial public offering in Hong Kong within the next two weeks.
Sources with knowledge of the matter have claimed that the company is now making preparations for the share sale, which could be launched earlier than it had initially anticipated.
The Chinese company, which operates a short video-sharing mobile platform similar to ByteDance's TikTok, previously stated that it was aiming to launch its initial public offering early next year. The exact sizing of its planned listing has yet to be announced.
The same sources stated that Kuaishou had already hired China Renaissance, the Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley to be its bookrunners for the share sale. All three banks have declined to comment on the reports.
Before its transformation as TikTok's main rival in China, Beijing-based Kuaishou was initially created as an online tool to create animated short-video in GIF formats. The company, which was founded in 2011, eventually transitioned into being a short-form video platform, mainly targeting users in lower-tiered cities.
By the first half of this year, Kuaishou boasted a user base of more than 170 million daily live-streamers. This was a significant jump from the 100 million daily users it had reported at the end of 2019. The company said that usage of its platform had dramatically increased during the pandemic as e-commerce activity skyrocketed.
Kuaishou's vice president of e-commerce said in a previous interview that its platform has become a popular channel for livestream e-commerce. He added that over the past quarters, the company has seen a "high conversion rate" of users turning to livestreaming e-commerce activities.
Based on its latest funding round, Kuaishou is estimated to have a private valuation of more than $30 billion. Chinese tech giant Tencent remains to be one of its largest investors. Tencent invested more than $350 million into the company during its funding round in 2017. Other investors that have also backed the company include Morningside Venture Capital, Sequoia Capital and Baidu.
