The Netflix-style streaming service, owned by Baidu Inc, has begun discussions with global banks about a second listing in the city, people familiar with the matter said, asking to remain anonymous discussing a private deal.
IQiyi’s US stock rose as much as 6% but pared gains to close little changed in New York.
IQiyi, which hosts a plethora of content from Chinese period dramas to blockbuster Hollywood films, joins the likes of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd in exploring a second listing in Hong Kong.
The company vies with Tencent Holdings Ltd and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd to rank among the biggest video-streaming platforms in China, with an estimated 400 million-plus monthly active users.
Negotiations around a listing are fluid and iQiyi may still reconsider. A company spokesperson didn’t provide comment when reached by Bloomberg News.
If it goes ahead, the Chinese firm will join a wave of listings that’ve fuelled Hong Kong’s revival this year. They helped the city reclaim its standing as the world’s second-largest market for share sales for the first time since 2012, reversing a years-long slump following the Covid-19 pandemic. Loosening regulations helped.
Chinese companies have propelled that trend – mostly, like CATL, mainland-listed firms.
For US-listed Chinese firms such as iQiyi, Donald Trump’s return to the White House this year has revived the threat of their stock getting delisted in America, with his administration seeking to determine if they are meeting auditing standards covered by the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act.
A 2020 US law empowered the Securities and Exchange Commission to order the delisting of Chinese firms if the regulator was unable to inspect their audits for two consecutive years.
The legislation was passed after the accounting practices of US-listed companies headquartered in mainland China and Hong Kong became a flash point during the first Trump presidency.
The concerns were considered resolved in 2022 after US officials said they’d gained sufficient access to review audit documents.
Analysts have speculated that companies like iQiyi and PDD Holdings Inc. would consider the idea of a market debut on friendlier ground.
Before the pandemic, companies such as Alibaba and Baidu successfully debuted in Hong Kong after initial public offerings in the US.