Business News Digital

Tencent Music could still IPO this year

By | Published on Monday 26 November 2018

Tencent

Despite speculation last week that Tencent might push back the IPO of its music division into the new year, sources have told the Financial Times that the company still hopes to go through with the listing this side of Christmas.

The Chinese web giant confirmed back in July that it intended to spin off its music assets into a standalone company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. That division includes China’s market-leading streaming service QQ Music plus other digital, distribution and label operations.

There was talk of that IPO happening in October, but then things got pushed back, in no small part because other tech firms listed in the US were seeing their share prices dip. Some then speculated over whether or not Tencent’s main rival in the Chinese streaming market – NetEase Cloud Music – raising $600 million in new financing might further delay the flotation.

Last week a Reuters report said that Tencent bosses had now discussed pushing their musical IPO back into 2019. But, according to the FT’s sources, a final decision on whether to float sooner rather than later will depend on the outcome of the G20 summit taking place later this week in Buenos Aires and how the investment markets react to all that.

Particular attention will be focused on whether the latest meeting of the 20 major economic powers has any impact on Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with China.

If market reaction to the summit is good, Tencent could immediately start roadshowing its IPO to potential investors with a view to start trading its shares on 12 Dec. A more negative response probably will push things back in 2019.

Which could mean, yet again, that the random whims and words of President Trump constitute music news.



READ MORE ABOUT: