TENCENT MUSIC TO GO PUBLIC IN U.S. WITH $30B VALUATION

Tencent said in a statement Sunday (8/26) that it will sell shares in its music division on a U.S. stock exchange. Tencent Music Entertainment is expected to be valued at north of $30 billion, putting it in line with Spotify’s direct listing back in April.

The two companies own 9% stakes in each other following a share swap in December, at which point TME was valued at $11.5b. Spotify’s current market cap is $34.4b.

The expected date for the SEC filing is a week from Friday (9/7), with the IPO hitting on 10/18, MBW reports, adding that Tencent quietly began proceedings for the listing in July after hooking up with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch two months earlier.

The two companies own stakes in each other following a share swap in December.

Tencent Music’s turnover for 2018 is expected to end up at around half that of Spotify, which is projected to turn over close to $6b in 2018, writes MBW’s Tim Ingham, who further points out that TME registered a $290m net profit last year, compared to a net loss of $1.4b for Spotify.

TME’s three services had a combined 700 million monthly users in China as of September 2017, according to Tencent, while its karaoke app WeSing had more 460m+ registered users. That’s a boatload of customers.