(Bloomberg) -- Weibo Corp. and its shareholder Sina Corp. are telling investors they plan to price the Twitter-like website’s Hong Kong second listing at HK$272.80 each, according to people familiar with the matter.
The price represents a discount of about 2.8% to Wednesday’s $36 close in New York, setting the Chinese social media company up to raise about HK$3 billion ($385 million), the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. The sellers set a maximum price of HK$388 for the portion of the deal being marketed to Hong Kong’s retail investors.
Weibo is offering 5.5 million new shares in the Hong Kong offering, while Sina is selling 5.5 million existing shares. Final pricing is expected later on Thursday.
The price guidance was first reported by IFR. A Weibo representative declined to comment.
The tech company’s Hong Kong listing comes as Chinese regulators continue their relentless tightening of oversight on local firms traded overseas. China will issue new draft rules as soon as this month restricting the use of so-called variable interest entities, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. The rules would ban VIEs’ use in new listings aside from in Hong Kong, and would require more transparency from firms that already use the structure.
Weibo has been quick to close accounts of users posting content deemed controversial. In September, the company said it had shut down at least 52 accounts posting stock tips due to violations of new rules on economic and finance-related information.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG, Citic Securities Co. and China International Capital Corp. are joint sponsors of the offering, according to a prospectus.
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