Xiaomi Corp (小米) has picked China’s Citic Securities (中信證券) to handle its issuance of Chinese depositary receipts as the smartphone maker prepares to file for an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter said.
The Beijing-based company might file for a public listing as soon as next month and is targeting a valuation of about US$100 billion, said one of the people who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
The call detail record (CDR) is most likely to come after the IPO in Hong Kong and its size is yet to be decided, the person said.
Xiaomi could be the biggest IPO since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) US$25 billion debut in 2014.
The smartphone maker, which once fetched a valuation of US$45 billion, suffered a challenging 2016 and then bounced back by revamping its sales model and expanding in India, where it rivals Samsung Electronics Co as the biggest vendor.
Xiaomi has chosen Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG for its IPO, people familiar with the matter have said.
Xiaomi declined to comment on its listing plans. A representative for Citic did not respond to a request for comment.
Beijing has encouraged its technology companies to issue CDRs so that citizens could invest in the nation’s fastest-growing companies. Its brightest stars, including Alibaba and search giant Baidu Inc (百度), have chosen to debut in New York because of the more flexible regulations and abundant capital abroad.
Final rules for CDRs have yet to be worked out, which might delay Xiaomi from issuing shares in China at the same time as Hong Kong.
With CDRs, companies that already trade on overseas exchanges — including Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) — would issue securities that could be purchased in China. The nation unveiled a pilot program earlier this month, aiming to bring back the most valuable overseas-listed giants.
Xiaomi cofounder and chief executive Lei Jun (雷軍) hailed CDRs as “an excellent idea” in an interview with Bloomberg News, calling it “a great policy innovation.”
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