After being placed on a US investment blacklist, Chinese artificial intelligence start-up SenseTime Group postponed its $767 million Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) on Monday.
SenseTime stated that it was still dedicated to complete the offering and that it would release a revised prospectus as well as an updated listing timeline.
With the goal of resuming the IPO process, the business plans to withdraw the offering and rewrite its prospectus to address the potential impact of the US investment restriction.
According to regulatory documents, SenseTime planned to offer 1.5 billion shares at a price range of HK$3.85 to HK$3.99. This would bring the total amount raised to $767 million, down from a target of $2 billion earlier this year.
Instead of announcing its listing price on Friday as planned, it found itself in urgent talks with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and its lawyers regarding the deal’s viability amid concerns of a looming blacklist.
In a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday, SenseTime did not disclose any information on the timeline for a revised IPO.
“The company remains committed to completing the global offering and the listing soon,” it said in the filing.
According to one insider, the company was attempting to act rapidly in order to avoid having to totally resubmit the IPO after Jan. 9, when its financial numbers in the current prospectus would need to be updated. According to the source, the company had kept roughly $450 million from cornerstone investors and could expect the majority of them to continue in the deal.
“Even if the company offers an updated prospectus with more risk factors and goes ahead with a public listing, we expect the investor sentiment to be low which will likely impact future pricing of its shares and their performance post-IPO,” said Shifara Samsudeen, a LightStream Research analyst who publishes on Smartkarma, told.
