By Robb M. Stewart Weibo Corp. s chairman refuted a report he was in talks with a state investor to take the Nasdaq-listed Chinese social-media company private. Weibo on Tuesday said Chairman Charles Chao informed the company the media report was untrue and he has had no discussion with anyone regarding the privatization of Weibo. In early trading, Weibo s shares were 11% higher at $60.10, having earlier hit a high of $62.76. They are up almost 50% since the end of last year. Earlier, Reuters reported that Mr. Chao, whose holding company New Wave is the largest Weibo stakeholder, is teaming up with a Shanghai-based state company to form a consortium for a deal that could value Weibo at $20 billion-plus and could facilitate an exit from major shareholder Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
Authorities on Tuesday issued a sweeping warning to the nation’s biggest companies, vowing to tighten oversight of data security and overseas listings just days after Didi Global Inc.’s contentious decision to go public in the U.S. That has put further selling pressure on China’s biggest technology names including Tencent Holdings Ltd., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., JD.Com Inc., Baidu Inc. and Meituan.
Investors are likely to take “a sell first, talk later approach” to limit policy risks in their portfolio, said Justin Tang, the head of Asian research at United First Partners in Singapore. Stock prices are likely to be driven by near-term sentiment swings as opposed to company fundamentals, Jian Shi Cortesi, a Zurich-based fund manager at GAM Investment Management, wrote in an email.
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July 07, 2021
Weibo Corporation Chairman Charles Chao talks on a cell phone.
Reuters
HONG KONG - Nasdaq-listed Weibo Corp s chairman and a Chinese state investor plan to take China s answer to Twitter private, sources told Reuters, sending its shares as much as 50 per cent higher on Tuesday (July 6).
A deal could value Weibo at more than $20 billion (S$27 billion), facilitate shareholder Alibaba s exit and see Weibo eventually relist in China to capitalise on higher valuations, the sources said.
Chairman Charles Chao s holding company New Wave, Weibo s top stakeholder, is teaming up with a Shanghai-based state company to form a consortium for the deal, three sources said, without disclosing the state firm s identity.