By Scott Murdoch
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese question and answer website Zhihu Inc priced its Hong Kong listing at HK$32.06 each to raise HK$833 million ($106.25 million), according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
The company sold 26 million shares in its dual primary listing, according to its regulatory filings.
Zhihu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The deal comes amid an increasing number of U.S.-listed Chinese firms also listing in Hong Kong as the regulatory stand off between Beijing and Washington shows no signs of ending.
The dispute over allowing access to Chinese companies’ accounts for U.S auditors is casting doubt on the future of those companies’ U.S. listings.
Washington is demanding full access to the books of U.S-listed Chinese companies, but Beijing has previously barred foreign inspection of working papers from local accounting firms.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said earlier this month it would revise the confidentiality rules involving offshore listings, which could remove a legal hurdle to the company-audit standoff.
Zhihu, which like U.S. knowledge-sharing website Quora Inc allows users to publicly post questions to which others offer replies, listed in New York in March last year.
Two of its U.S-listed depository receipts equal one Hong Kong share, according to a term sheet for the deal.
The shares will start trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 22, the company’s regulatory filings show.
Four existing shareholders, led by Capital Today and Innovation Works, sold the stock for Zhihu’s Hong Kong listing, according to the term sheet.
Zhihu’s New York stock fell 2.7% on Wednesday as the bookbuild for the Hong Kong listing was being finalised.
Its shares are down 61.2% so far in 2022.
($1 = 7.8393 Hong Kong dollars)
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
