Xiaomi placed its dual-listing strategy on hold and is now planning to first complete a traditional initial public offering in Hong Kong before issuing any Chinese depositary receipts, the company said Tuesday. While no official reasoning for the decision has been given, Reuters reports the firm opted to postpone its CDR plans because the rules meant to regulate them likely won’t be finalized by the end of this month, making planning an early July listing a difficult affair.
Xiaomi may hence raise under $10 billion in Hong Kong and only reach its funding target following the completion of its CDR plans which were first reported earlier this month. The company is aiming to have its shares listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the first half of July, according to its previous regulatory filings. A dual-IPO strategy is widely interpreted as a safer bet for the firm that some investors still think is overvalued given the stagnation experienced by the global smartphone market in recent times, as well as Xiaomi’s long-term strategy which doesn’t prioritize profits over other performance metrics.
China only recently started creating an environment conducive to CDRs, having envisioned them as means of attracting more domestic tech firms to seek funding from investors in the Far Eastern country instead of going abroad. Xiaomi has yet to specify when it’s planning to resume its CDR application process, with some industry watchers predicting the company will resolve to do so by the end of the summer. Xiaomi may reach a valuation of around $80 billion on the public markets, propelled by its massive growth in India, the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market which the company only entered three years back but is already challenging Samsung for the title of the largest local handset vendor. The manufacturer’s latest high-end offering came in the form of the Mi 8, an Android flagship set to start retailing on a global level in the coming weeks.