Tencent Music Entertainment (NYSE: TME)
Tencent Music Entertainment Group shares jumped 10% after the Chinese music streaming giant made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Based on an initial share price of $13.00, which is the bottom of a range of $13.00 to $15.00 per share, the company initially raised about $1.1 billion from its initial public offering by selling 82,000,000 million American depositary shares on Tuesday.
Despite missing early expectations, the deal still emerged as one of the largest IPOs in the U.S. by a Chinese company in the past few years. The deal also comes at a time when Washington and Beijing are entangled in a prolonged and vicious trade disagreement.
The company which has the backing of Tencent Holdings Ltd. now has a market value of about $23 billion, just below Spotify Ltd. Tencent Music is the owner of the most popular music apps in China, such as karaoke service WeSing, QQ Music, as well as Kugou Music. Tencent had a total of 800 million monthly active users at the end of September, of which approximately 35 million were paying customers.
Executives of the company initially expected the company to have a market value of close to $30 billion when it began eyeing the U.S. IPO earlier this year. The firm, however, slashed the selling price for the offering to the range of $13 to $15 apiece, following weeks of delay. Tencent intends to use proceeds from the offering to develop new services, finance potential investments, market its services, and expand its music catalogue.
Tencent Music Entertainment Group was created by its majority owner Tencent Holdings after buying China Music Corp. two and combining it with its music business. Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Spotify Ltd. are among the other companies that have invested in the company.
Tencent Music Entertainment Group Profile
Tencent Music Entertainment Group operates an online music entertainment platform that provides online music and music-centric social entertainment services in China. It offers QQ Music, Kugou Music, and Kuwo Music that enable users to discover and listen to music in personalized ways; and WeSing, which enables users to have fun by singing and interacting with friends, sharing their singing performances with friends, and discovering songs that others have sung.
The company also operates Kugou Live and Kuwo Live that provides an interactive online stage for performers and users to showcase their talent and engage with those interested in their performance. The company was formerly known as China Music Corporation. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Shenzhen, Chiane. Tencent Music Entertainment Group is a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings Limited. – Bloomberg
