Can’t get enough of online music-streaming services’ IPOs? Well, in the wake of Spotify’s offering earlier this month, another one is probably on the way: that of Chinese rival Tencent Music.
Tencent Music actually has a stake in Spotify—worth $2.4 billion at the time of the European company’s flotation—thanks to a mutual investment agreement between the two operations late last year. The point of that deal was to give the companies more exposure to their respective markets.
Now Tencent Music is itself heading for a likely IPO. And although it had a $10 billion valuation just several months ago, and a $12.5 billion valuation at the time of the December stake-swap with Spotify, the Wall Street Journal now reports that the flotation may value Tencent Music at more than $25 billion.
That means its IPO could be one of the biggest ever in the tech world.
According to the Journal‘s sources, it will be several months before Tencent Music explains where it will hold its IPO—if indeed it chooses to take that path. But it will probably be in the U.S., sometime in the second half of this year.
Tencent Music is majority-owned by Tencent Holdings, the enormous Chinese tech conglomerate that operates the WeChat and QQ online platforms. Tencent Holdings bought a company called China Music Corp. a couple years back, combined it with its own streaming service and created Tencent Music.
Spotify’s IPO was unusual in that the Sweden-based company did not offer new shares—instead, it took a direct-listing approach so that its existing shareholders could sell off some of their shares. The opening price on April 3 was $165.90; shares immediately dipped and, while they’ve since largely clawed back lost ground, they still only closed last week a $158.45.
