After being "attacked" by the United States, SenseTime delayed the IPO of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

On December 13, SenseTime announced that its global offering and listing would be delayed. According to the announcement, on December 10, 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department included SenseTime Group Co., Ltd. in the "List of Non-SDN China Military Complex Enterprises". In order to protect the interests of the Company's intended investors and to help consider the potential impact of the latest developments on its investment decisions, the Company makes the following announcements.

The Board of Directors announced that the global offering and listing will be delayed and that the Company expects to publish a supplementary prospectus, a supplementary prospectus amendment and a supplementary prospectus, which will contain the updated listing schedule, the relevant application procedures for the Hong Kong offering and other relevant information. The Company remains committed to completing its global offering and listing as soon as possible. All applications will be refunded to all applicants without interest.

According to previous announcements, artificial intelligence software company SenseTime Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SenseTime") is expected to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 17. However, on December 11, SenseTime issued a statement saying that on December 10, 2021, local time in the United States, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that SenseTime would be added to the list of so-called "Chinese military complex enterprises". SenseTime strongly objected to this decision and related allegations, "We believe that this decision is groundless and reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of our company." Technological development should not be influenced by geopolitics. ”

SenseTime said that SenseTime is a leading artificial intelligence software company committed to developing sustainable, responsible and ethical artificial intelligence technologies and applications, and strictly abides by the laws and regulations of relevant countries and regions in all aspects. In addition, SenseTime's Ethics Committee recruits internal and external experts to develop and oversee the implementation of strict ethical standards for the use of AI technologies so that AI technologies can be properly applied. At the same time, SenseTime has extensively cooperated with third-party institutions and international organizations to formulate a series of ethical governance principles for the sustainable development of artificial intelligence to promote the sustainable development of artificial intelligence technology in a responsible manner.

As early as October 2019, SenseTime's subsidiary, Beijing SenseTime, was included in the "Entity List" by the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce, along with companies such as iFLYTEK and Hikvision, which will face export controls from the United States and may not provide specific U.S. goods, technologies or services to these companies without the permission of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

According to the data, SenseTime was established in 2014 as an artificial intelligence software company focusing on computer vision software, and SenseTime mainly uses the company's software platform to help customers improve productivity, stimulate creativity and improve their operating efficiency. As of June 30, 2021, the total number of customers of the company's software platform has exceeded 2,400. According to the Frost & Sullivan Report, SenseTime is asia's largest AI software company in terms of revenue in 2020 and the largest computer vision software provider in China with an 11% revenue market share.

According to the prospectus, SenseTime adopts a different voting rights structure, in its pre-listing shareholder structure, the controlling shareholder is Tang Xiaoou, who holds 21.73% of the shares through Amand (Class A shares, each share can vote 10 votes), indirectly holds about 5.95% (Class B shares, each share can vote 1 vote); co-founders Xu Li, Wang Xiaogang and Xu Bing, directly and through Sense Talent, hold a total of about 14.13%. In addition, other investors include: SoftBank holding 14.88%, Taobao China holding 7.59%, Primavera Capital holding 3.08%, Silver Lake Capital holding 3.05%, IDG Capital holding 1.42%, State Adjustment Fund holding 1.39%, Shanghai International Group holding 1.33%, Sailing holding 1.29%, and CDH holding 1.00%.

Nandu reporter Manningning