IQiyi, Baidu's Netflix of China, Set to Raise $2.25 Billion in U.S. Offering
30 March 2018 - 12:30AM
Dow Jones News
By Austen Hufford
The Netflix-like, video-streaming unit of Chinese search-engine
giant Baidu Inc. priced its U.S. initial public offering Thursday,
setting the company up to raise $2.25 billion.
IQiyi Inc. said Thursday that its IPO of 125 million American
depositary shares priced at $18 a share. The IPO priced at the
midpoint of its $17 to $19 marketed range.
The unprofitable company has been looking to raise money to stay
ahead in the competitive Chinese video-streaming sector where tech
titans Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. also
have offerings. It plans to spend half of the proceeds raised from
the IPO to "expand and enhance" its content offerings, according to
a securities filing.
IQiyi, founded in 2010, said it is China's largest
video-streaming service by amount of time spent watching. IQiyi
reported 60.1 million subscribers as of Feb. 28, roughly 59 million
of whom pay for the service.
Shares are set to begin trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Global
Market under the ticker IQ.
Underwriters of the offering could also purchase up to 18.8
million iQiyi shares.
Alyssa Abkowitz contributed to this report
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 29, 2018 09:15 ET (13:15 GMT)
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