Source: Nasdaq-listed Chinese video streaming service Bilibili is gearing up for a secondary listing in Hong Kong next year, which could raise up to $1.5B
- Chinese video platform Bilibili is gearing up for a secondary listing in Hong Kong which could raise up to $1.5 billion, CNBC has confirmed.
Context & Ripple Effects
Bilibili has been building toward this for two years: its March 2018 Nasdaq IPO raised roughly $483M at a valuation above $3B, and Tencent deepened its position months later with a $317.6M purchase of a 12.3% stake. A Hong Kong secondary listing was the obvious next step once the US-listed stock had re-rated.
The plan reported here did not stay at $1.5B: by January 2021 Bilibili had filed for the Hong Kong listing with a target above $2B, received approval for a proposed $3B raise, and began trading there on March 29 in a debut expected to bring in $2.8B. The initial report understated both the size and the speed of execution.
First-order effects
- Bilibili gains a second, home-market capital pool — ultimately $2.8B rather than the $1.5B first floated — while Hong Kong investors get direct access to a company they could previously only reach through its Nasdaq shares.
Second-order effects
- Fellow US-listed Chinese streamers such as iQiyi, which set its own Nasdaq terms alongside Bilibili back in 2018, face investor pressure to pursue parallel Hong Kong listings, and the Hong Kong exchange books high-profile tech deal flow that reinforces its role as the dual-listing venue.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, large Chinese consumer-internet companies become structurally dual-homed across New York and Hong Kong, with each new successful secondary listing lowering the perceived risk — and the financing penalty — of the next one.
The trend: US-listed Chinese tech companies are layering Hong Kong secondary listings on top of their American ones, converting a hedge against delisting risk into a primary capital-raising channel.