Sina Corp (新浪) has agreed to go private after an entity led by its chairman, Charles Chao (趙廣民), boosted its offer for the Chinese social media company to US$43.30 a share in cash.
The Beijing-based company said that the offer implied an equity value for the company of US$2.59 billion and represented a 7.7 percent premium to its closing price on Friday last week.
It is also an increase from a buyout proposal that Singapore-based New Wave Holdings Ltd made in July at US$41 a share.
Chinese companies that once pursued the recognition and liquidity of listing their shares in the US have shown an increasing appetite to turn instead to their home markets.
Qihoo 360 Technology Co (奇虎三六零) delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in July 2016 and then sold shares in Shanghai in 2018 as 360 Security Technology Inc (三六零安全科技).
A number of Chinese tech firms have since delisted from US exchanges or turned to other markets amid growing scrutiny by regulators.
Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) in July offered to buy out and take private search engine Sogou Inc (搜狗) in a US$2.1 billion deal, while 58.com Inc (五八同城) agreed to be bought out by a private equity consortium for US$8.7 billion.
Sina went public in 2000 on the NASDAQ during the dotcom boom, alongside other pioneers from China’s technology sector. It operates Sina Weibo (微博).
New Wave in July submitted a preliminary non-binding proposal letter to take the company private.
It said the current offer is an 18 percent premium to the closing price on July 2, the last trading day before the earlier offer.
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