Chinese bitcoin mining gear makers set sights on world's
largest bitcoin IPOs
Send a link to a friend
[May 15, 2018]
By Fiona Lau and Jennifer Hughes
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Two Chinese bitcoin
mining equipment makers are set to test international investor appetite
for cryptocurrencies with plans to raise as much as $1 billion each - in
what are expected to be the world's largest bitcoin-focused floats to
date.
Canaan Creative has applied to the Hong Kong stock exchange for an IPO
while Zhejiang Ebang Communication has started working with advisers on
a Hong Kong float, according to IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication.
While the price of bitcoin <BTC=BTSP> has tumbled 35 percent this year
and Beijing has tightened its grip on trade in the virtual currency,
equipment makers are still hungry for capital to fund growth and to meet
still robust demand for their machines.
Both are seeking as much as $1 billion, IFR said, which would dwarf
other known listings for crytopcurrency firms.
Canaan Creative declined to comment. Ebang could not be immediately
reached for comment.
Canaan estimates it supplies a quarter of the world's bitcoin blockchain
computing power, according to a Reuters interview last month with
co-chairman Jianping Kong, who also expects China's push to promote its
domestic chip industry to help drive growth for the company.
Ebang delisted from China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations,
also known as the New Third Board, this year after announcing in January
that it would seek a Hong Kong listing.
While many companies promote links to bitcoin and, more commonly,
blockchain - the distributed ledger technology that underpins bitcoin -
few that focus on the cryptocurrency have listed publicly.
In Australia, DigitalBTC went public via a backdoor listing in 2014 when
it merged with Macro Energy, an investing group in a deal which raised
A$9.1 million ($6.8 million). The company later changed its name to
DigitalX <DCC.AX> and switched its focus from bitcoin to fintech
software.
[to top of second column] |
Canaan Creative co-chairman Jianping Kong speaks during an interview
in Hong Kong, China April 6, 2018. REUTERS/Bobby Yip
Another miner, Bitcoin Group, withdrew its Sydney listing plans in 2016 after
the local regulator questioned whether it would have sufficient working capital
to be a going concern.
In Canada, Leeta Gold, a mineral exploration company, renamed itself Hive
Blockchain <HIVE.V> last summer and partnered with Hong Kong-based Genesis
Mining on a bitcoin mining facility in Iceland. It has a market capitalization
of $333 million.
Canaan was valued at about $500 million in mid-2017 according to one source
cited by IFR. The valuation for its IPO has yet to be set due to a lack of
companies to compare it to and fluctuating prices of cryptocurrencies, IFR
quoted sources as saying.
Credit Suisse, CMB International, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley are joint
sponsors for Canaan's float, IFR added.
Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank declined to comment. The other banks did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bitcoin mining equipment makers make computers with special chips that mine the
coins more efficiently than more mainstream chips made by companies such as
Intel.
(Reporting by Fiona Lau at IFR and Jennifer Hughes; Additional reporting by
Sijia Jiang, Alun John and Julie Zhu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and
Edwina Gibbs)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |