Tencent Music to launch $2bn IPO in December?

Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), which is 58%-owned by Tencent, and is China’s answer to Spotify (TME has a 7.5% stake in the Swedish streaming service), is facing decision time on its $2bn initial public offering (IPO). TME, which has more than 800mn monthly users, had initially pencilled in an October launch for a US IPO of up to $2bn, but decided last month to delay until November in the hope that market jitters would settle. However, this hasn’t happened and TME now faces a still-weak mood towards tech stocks and ongoing market jitters. Now several media outlets are reporting that TME may push on with a $2bn listing in New York this December. However, The New York Times writes that December is a bad time of the year to sell new equity and a “subdued deal would confirm fears that the window for sizable offerings is closing fast.” The report notes that large US investors shy away from big deals during the festive period and only 3 companies have launched December New York offerings of more than $1bn in the past decade, according to data from Refinitiv. The Financial Times (FT), meanwhile, says shares of the music unit will start trading on 12 December, later than any of these earlier year-end offerings.