E.03.25 Chinese Video Company Bilibili Eyes $2.8 Billion Hong Kong Share Sale

2021.03.25

文章目录

【课程导读】

2009年6月，哔哩哔哩网站上线。这家名字起得欢脱、从二次元内容出发、能发弹幕的视频网站，成立初期被用户们亲切地称为——小破站。但短短几年后，它便摘掉了小众、边缘的标签，一跃成为国内首屈一指的年轻文化聚集地。举办网络跨年，冠名篮球队，甚至还发射过视频卫星，曾经的小破站摇身一变，成为了家喻户晓的B站。2018年，哔哩哔哩在纳斯达克敲钟上市。就在最近，B站又公布了即将在香港二次上市的消息。它为何深受年轻人的喜爱？又为何选择在此时再次上市？

【英文原文】

Chinese Video Company Bilibili Eyes $2.8 Billion Hong Kong Share Sale
中国视频公司哔哩哔哩拟香港上市，计划筹资28亿美元
By Joanne Chiu

Bilibili Inc., the operator of a video app popular with young Chinese videogame and animation fans, is capitalizing on a huge run-up in its shares to raise nearly $3 billion in Hong Kong.

  • eye v. 沉思，考虑
  • Inc. （缩写）有限公司
  • capitalize on sth. 利用（包含使某事物资本化之意）
  • run-up n. 急剧增长

哔哩哔哩是一家视频应用运营商，深受中国年轻的电子游戏与动漫粉丝们的追捧。目前，它计划利用其美股股价大幅上涨的机会，在香港融资近30亿美元。

The planned secondary listing for Bilibili, whose shares already trade on Nasdaq, comes soon after Kuaishou Technology, the group behind one of China’s most popular TikTok-style apps, raised $6.2 billion from a February initial public offering in Hong Kong.

  • listing n. （尤指表示某种特殊资格的）入册（文中指上市）
  • shares n. [金融] 股份（share的复数形式）
  • initial public offering 首次公开募股（IPO）

哔哩哔哩此前已在纳斯达克上市交易，在其公布二次上市计划前不久，快手科技刚刚于2月份在香港首次公开募股，并筹得62亿美元，其旗下的短视频应用软件在中国广受欢迎。

Shanghai-headquartered Bilibili caters to what it calls “Gen Z+” consumers, born between 1985 and 2009, and prides itself on having a committed fan base. Its videos span topics such as cosplay, fashion, anime, technology, esports and celebrities, and are peppered with “bullet chats,” a format Bilibili pioneered, in which comments fly across the screen during a video.

  • cater to 迎合（某个人群），服务于（某个人群）
  • pride oneself on sth. 以…而自豪
  • be peppered with sth. 充满（某物）
  • bullet chats 弹幕

哔哩哔哩总部位于上海，面向的是1985至2009年间出生的“Z时代”消费者。它拥有忠实的粉丝群体，并以此为荣。网站视频涵盖动漫角色扮演、时尚、动漫、电子竞技和明星等内容，其中还充满“弹幕”。这是一种因哔哩哔哩而流行的功能，指的是在视频播放时不停飞过屏幕的评论。

While social networks often want to make it easy to bring in new members, Bilibili users must pass a 100-item test covering online etiquette and other topics to become official members, which gives them the right to comment on posts. Slightly more than half of Bilibili’s 202 million monthly active users have passed the test.

社交网络平台通常都希望简化新用户的上手过程，但哔哩哔哩的用户却必须通过一套测试才可以成为正式会员，才能发表评论。测试共100道问题，包含线上礼节等话题。哔哩哔哩的2.02亿月活跃用户中，有略超过一半的用户通过了测试。

It earns revenue from mobile games, subscription fees, virtual gifting, advertising and other services. Bilibili reported a net loss of $468 million for 2020, on revenue up 77% to $1.8 billion.

该公司营收来源于手机游戏、订阅费用、虚拟礼物、广告和其他服务。哔哩哔哩报告，公司2020年净亏损4.68亿美元，收入增长77%，达到18亿美元。

【外刊原文】

Chinese Video Company Bilibili Eyes $2.8 Billion Hong Kong Share Sale
By Joanne Chiu
@The Wall Street Journal

Bilibili Inc., the operator of a video app popular with young Chinese videogame and animation fans, is capitalizing on a huge run-up in its shares to raise nearly $3 billion in Hong Kong.

The planned secondary listing for Bilibili, whose shares already trade on Nasdaq, comes soon after Kuaishou Technology, the group behind one of China’s most popular TikTok-style apps, raised $6.2 billion from a February initial public offering in Hong Kong.

The stock sale, launched on Wednesday, will be worth about $2.8 billion based on the last closing price of Bilibili’s American depositary receipts, although the final size could be increased 15% under what is called a green-shoe option.

The company counts Tencent Holdings Ltd. , Sony Corp. and a unit of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. among its investors. Its American depositary receipts have more than quadrupled over the past 12 months, giving it a market capitalization of nearly $40 billion, according to FactSet, although it has reported annual net losses for three straight years since going public in 2018.

The company is joining a group of U.S.-listed Chinese firms that have sold shares in Hong Kong in recent years, in part to tap investors who are more familiar with the Chinese business landscape. The share sales could also help offset the risk of a potential delisting in New York, given heightened pressure over Chinese auditing secrecy, and with some state-backed Chinese companies forced to delist after their addition to a Pentagon investment blacklist.

Separately, Baidu Inc., the operator of China’s largest search engine, is set to raise $3.1 billion from its own secondary listing in Hong Kong. On Wednesday the company fixed the offer price for its share sale at 252 Hong Kong dollars each, or 15% below the maximum level it had set earlier for individual investors. Baidu’s stock will begin trading on the city’s stock exchange on March 23.

Shanghai-headquartered Bilibili caters to what it calls “Gen Z+” consumers, born between 1985 and 2009, and prides itself on having a committed fan base. Its videos span topics such as cosplay, fashion, anime, technology, esports and celebrities, and are peppered with “bullet chats,” a format Bilibili pioneered, in which comments fly across the screen during a video.

While social networks often want to make it easy to bring in new members, Bilibili users must pass a 100-item test covering online etiquette and other topics to become official members, which gives them the right to comment on posts. Slightly more than half of Bilibili’s 202 million monthly active users have passed the test.

It earns revenue from mobile games, subscription fees, virtual gifting, advertising and other services. Bilibili reported a net loss of $468 million for 2020, on revenue up 77% to $1.8 billion.

Bilibili plans to sell 25 million new shares to investors and to fix the final offer price on March 23. It plans to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange on March 29 under ticker 9626, it said.

The deal is being led by units of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and UBS Group AG.

Bilibili set the maximum offer price for a smaller portion of stock reserved for individual investors at 988 Hong Kong dollars per ordinary share, or the equivalent of $127 each. The offer price for stock sold to institutional investors could be higher, it said. One ADR represents one class Z ordinary share, the same kind of stock being sold in the Hong Kong offering.

Reprinted by permission of The Wall Street Journal, Copyright 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Original Date of Publication: March 17, 2021