China’s largest online movie ticketing service Maoyan Weiying reportedly filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The Tencent-backed company, however, has yet not disclosed that when the IPO will be or other valuation details.
But, according to the earlier reports of this year, Maoyan aims to raise up to $1 billion. This move has come soon after another Tencent investment, Meituan-Dianping, is preparing for its own debut (Meituan is also one of Maoyan’s investors).
Both Meituan and Maoyan are an important part of Tencent’s online-to-offline services rivalry with Alibaba. Meituan holds the number one market share for online services in China in terms of market volume. Similarly, Maoyan is the largest online movie ticketing app service in China.
It was last November that Maoyan, a couple of months after merging with Weiying. Apart from Tencent and Meituan, Maoyan’s counts Beijing-based Enlight Media as its investor.
Maoyan claims that its revenue grew to RMB 2.54 billion in 2017 from RMB 596.7 million in 2015, with a CAGR of 106.6%. In the first half of this year, it recorded revenue of RMB 1.9 billion and a net loss of RMB 231 million. Also, it held a market share of 60.9% by gross merchandise volume in the first half of 2018.
The public offering as stated by the company will be led by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.