Tencent Music has made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, raising over $1.1bn in its initial public offering (IPO).
Tencent Music is the music arm of Chinese tech behemoth Tencent, which comprises of streaming apps Kugou Music, Kuwo Music (which it gained following a merger with China Music Corp SMC) and QQ Music, and WeSing, a karaoke music app. The IPO has been long awaited by the market, with three banks being enlisted to lead the IPO back in June.
Tencent Music’s listing was the fourth largest listing of Chinese firms in the US this year, according to Reuters. The largest was iQiyi, which raised $2.4bn, followed by online discount firm Pinduoduo at $1.6bn and electronic car maker NIO at $1.15bn.
This comes despite reports claiming this week that a Tencent executive had been sued around an accusation of defrauding and coercing an early investor to sell his equity stake, ahead of the company’s IPO.
According to a document filed in New York, Guo Hanwei, a Chinese investor, says Xie Guomin, co-president of Tencent Music Entertainment, forced him to sell an equity stake in Ocean Music. This company was merged with Tencent Music, creating the company that has been floated on the stock exchange this week, it said.
Hanwei is calling for Tencent bosses to compensate him for his financial losses.