Baidu plans to list in Hong Kong as soon as the first half of 2021, possibly selling about 5 percent to 9 percent of its share capital, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Based on Baidu's latest market capitalization of nearly $70 billion, the offering could raise at least $3.5 billion.
Baidu has selected CLSA and Goldman Sachs to arrange its secondary listing in Hong Kong, the report said.
Baidu was up 2.62 percent at $209.3 in pre-market trading Thursday.
In May 2020, Baidu Chairman Robin Li told China Daily, "We are really concerned that the U.S. from the government level is continuing to tighten regulations on Chinese companies, and we are constantly discussing internally what we can do, including secondary listings in Hong Kong and other places."
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As a Chinese company listed on Nasdaq, Baidu is not worried about the U.S. government crackdown, Li said, "Our fundamental judgment is that if it's a good company, there are very many options for where to go public, and it's not limited to the United States. So we are not so worried that the U.S. government crackdown will have an irreversible impact on the company's business,"
Baidu is the world's largest Chinese-language search engine and an artificial intelligence platform-based company.
Founded on Jan. 1, 2000, in Zhongguancun, Beijing, Baidu went public on the U.S. Nasdaq in 2005.
In the third quarter of 2020, Baidu achieved revenue of RMB 28.2 billion, up 1% year-over-year and up 8% from the previous quarter. Net income attributable to Baidu reached RMB 13.7 billion in the third quarter, compared to a net loss of RMB 6.4 billion in the same period last year.
Baidu expects revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020 to be in the range of RMB 28.6 billion to RMB 31.3 billion, up -1% to 8% year-over-year.
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