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Cue
has appointed Credit Suisse <CSGN.S> and Morgan Stanley <MS.N>
to raise $300-$400 million as part of its initial public
offering (IPO) due early next year, the sources said.
The company aims to have a market capitalization of up to $2
billion, they added.
The people could not be identified because the information has
not yet been made public.
Cue is a digital agency that works with Chinese tech companies
like ByteDance, Baidu <BIDU.O> and Tencent <0700.HK> to source
advertising on their popular Chinese apps like WeChat, Douyin,
Jinri Toutiao, and Kuaishou.
The Shanghai-based company was formed in March last year when
four digital firms consisting of WIN, AnG, Wina Tech and Qixin
were merged into a partnership and the business was backed by
KKR <KKR.N> .
It carried out a private funding round in August which was led
by Anchor Equity Partners, the South Korean firm, and
Princeville, according to a company statement at the time.
Cue and KKR spokeswomen declined to comment on the company's
possible IPO, as did Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.
If the company presses ahead with a U.S listing, it will be the
latest in a string of Chinese tech and cryptocurrency companies
contemplating a New York IPO.
Investment banking sources have told Reuters the companies have
not been dissuaded by the U.S.-China trade war and after
Washington blacklisted some mainland tech companies like Megvii
and Sensetime.
BitMain Technologies has lodged its prospectus confidentially
with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to
$500 million in a deal which could go ahead early next year.
Similarly, bitcoin miner Canaan Creative updated its U.S.
filings with the SEC this week after it lodged its documents to
raise up to $400 million. Canaan has appointed Citigroup <C.N>
and Credit Suisse to work on the deal.
Canaan attempted a Chinese listing three years ago through a
reverse merger by buying a Shandong-based electric equipment
maker and then again filed for a Hong Kong float last year.
However, both IPO processes were put on hold after regulators
expressed doubt about the company’s business model and future
growth prospects.
36Kr, a Chinese tech startup, has more than halved the size of
its current deal and will now raise just $24 million and the
pricing of the deal is due to occur on Friday in New York.
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch and Julie Zhu, additional reporting
Yingzhi Yang; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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