SenseTime will complete its Hong Kong IPO by the end of the year at the earliest.
Wen 丨AI Planet ID: ai_xingqiu
Editor 丨 Wang Fei
At noon today, SenseTime announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange 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 the global offering and listing as soon as possible.
SenseTime also said that all applications will be refunded to all applicants without interest.
According to the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, SenseTime will complete its Hong Kong IPO by the end of the year at the earliest.
Source: HKEx
It is worth mentioning that on December 10, 2021, local time in the United States, the US Treasury Department announced that SenseTime will be added to the list of so-called "Chinese military-industrial complex enterprises".
On December 11, in response to the US Treasury Department's use of so-called "human rights violations" as an excuse to include SenseTime and other companies in the list of investment restrictions. SenseTime issued a statement saying that we strongly oppose this decision and related allegations. We believe that this decision is unfounded in relation to the allegations and reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of our company.
It is understood that this is the second time that SenseTime technology has been suppressed by the United States. In October 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce added it to the Entity List.
According to public information, SenseTime was co-founded by scientists and practitioners in the field of artificial intelligence such as Professor Tang Xiaoou, Dr. Xu Li, Dr. Wang Xiaogang, Mr. Xu Bing, etc., who led the company from a research-oriented team to an artificial intelligence company that achieved commercial success. The company's management team consists of top AI scientists and experienced business professionals with an average of more than 20 years of work experience and more than 5,000 employees, with an average age of 31 years. As of June 30, 2021, the company has 40 professors leading research efforts and 3,593 technical R&D personnel, including more than 250 phD and phD candidates.
As an artificial intelligence software company, SenseTime aims to continue to lead the cutting-edge research of artificial intelligence, continue to build a more expansive and inclusive artificial intelligence software platform, promote economic, social and human development, and continue to attract and cultivate top talents to jointly shape the future.
SenseTime has deep academic accumulation and long-term investment in original technology research, and continuously enhances industry-leading full-stack artificial intelligence capabilities, covering key technology areas such as perception intelligence, decision intelligence, intelligent content generation and intelligent content enhancement, as well as key capabilities including AI chips, AI sensors and AI computing infrastructure. In addition, SenseTime forward-looking to build a new artificial intelligence infrastructure - SenseCore AI device, through computing power, algorithms and platforms, significantly reduce the price of artificial intelligence production factors, to achieve high efficiency, low cost, large-scale AI innovation and landing, and then open up the business value closed loop, solve long-tail application problems, and promote artificial intelligence into the stage of industrial development.
SenseTime's business covers four major sectors: smart business, smart city, smart life and smart car, and the related products and solutions are well received by customers and partners.
SenseTime has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Nanping, Qingdao, Sanya, Xi'an, Taipei, Macau, Kyoto, Tokyo, Singapore, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul. In addition, SenseTime has operations in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries.
On August 27 this year, SenseTime submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with CICC, Haitong International and HSBC acting as co-sponsors of the offering. It is predicted that SenseTime's valuation could reach $12 billion.
On December 7, SenseTime announced that the Hong Kong Public Offering would commence at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 7, 2021 and end at 12:00 noon on Friday, December 10, 2021. The final offer price and placement results are expected to be announced on Thursday, December 16, 2021. The Company's Class B shares are expected to commence trading on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday, 17 December 2021 under the stock code 0020. Class B shares of the Company will be traded on a 1,000-lot basis.
In addition, SenseTime has entered into Cornerstone Investment Agreements with nine Cornerstone Investors, who have agreed to subscribe for or induce their designated entities to subscribe for a total of approximately US$450 million in the Offering Shares, assuming a limit price under the Offer Price, representing approximately 60% of the Offering Shares. The cornerstone investors are the Mixed Ownership Reform Fund initiated by China Chengtong, Guosheng Overseas Hong Kong, Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Equity Investment Fund, SAIC Hong Kong, GF Fund, Pleiad Fund, WT, Focustar and Hel Ved.
According to the prospectus, before the IPO, SenseTime founder Tang Xiaoou held 21.73% of the shares, and co-founder and CEO Xu Li held 0.9%; in addition, SoftBank held 14.88%, Taobao China held 7.59%, Primavera Capital held 3.08%, Silver Lake Capital held 3.05%, and IDG Capital held 1.42%. SenseTalent (Class B shares held by Xu Li, Wang Xiaogang and Xu Bing) holds 12.17% of the shares.
At present, it is not clear when SenseTime will be delayed to the specific time, and we will continue to pay attention to it.
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