Tencent Music has filed the paperwork for its IPO in the United States, putting the music branch of the Chinese conglomerate Tencent on track for a listing later this month. It named both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq in the filing, but has not yet chosen where it will list. The SEC papers reveal a bit more insight about what is expected to be a landmark listing.
The company set $1 billion as the placeholder for its IPO size. Depending on the final pricing, Tencent could be the largest IPO of the year, and the largest IPO to date for any Chinese company in the U.S. It also has some financial heavyweights involved, with Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs (Asia), JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley named as lead underwriters. Tencent Music reported $263 million in profit and $1.3 billion in revenue for the first half of 2018.
When the public offering does happen, it will be of particular note to another music company that listed this year. Spotify owns 9.1% of Tencent Music, following a mutual exchange of minority stakes at the end of 2017. Spotify opted for a direct listing on the NYSE and has been posting a solid performance on that exchange.