Tencent unit China Literature launches $1.1 billion IPO

Almaty. October 24. Silkroadnews - Tencent unit China Literature launches $1.1 billion IPO, Channel NewsAsia news portal reports.
“China Literature Ltd, China's largest online publishing and e-book company, launched an initial public offering for up to US$1.1 billion, seeking funds for acquisitions and to expand its digital publishing business,” the report said.
It is noted that Tencent Holdings Ltd owns 62% of the shares of China Literature, 12.2% stake is held by private equity company Carlyle Group LP, and Trustbridge Partners, a private equity company founded by the former CFO of Shanda Interactive owns another 6%.
According to the listing for the IPO seen by Reuters, China Literature and some of its shareholders offer 151.37 million shares in an indicative range of HKUS$48 to HKUS$55 each. The new shares will be equivalent to 16.7% of the enlarged share capital of China Literature, and its market capitalization is expected to amount to $6.4 billion.
China Literature is operating in a business similar to Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle Store, a platform manager with 9.6 million literary works by 6.4 million authors.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley were invited as sponsors for the IPO, and China International Capital Corp Ltd (CICC) and JPMorgan acted as joint global coordinators.