Secondary Listing in Hong Kong helps Baidu raise capital
The dual listing riases over 3bn dollars for the chinese search engine company.
Chinese search engine giant Baidu announced that it will raise approximately HK $ 23.94 billion ($ 3.08 billion) on its upcoming Hong Kong secondary listing at a price of HK $ 252 per share. The internet giant plans to use a portion of the proceeds from the stock sale to invest in its AI technology, including its AI cloud solutions and the Apollo autonomous driving platform. According to the announcement, the stock will trade under the code "9888" on March 23rd. Baidu's chairman and chief executive officer Robin Li Yanhong holds approximately 57% of the voting rights in the company, according to the post-hearing information package posted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange website last week. Baidu said it has been investing in AI since 2010 to improve ad search and monetization, and that it is using its core AI technology engine, Baidu Brain, to develop new AI businesses. The document states that as of October 30, 2020, Baidu had the largest portfolio of AI patents and AI patent applications in China. Baidu's open AI platform, with its developer community of over 2.65 million members, is the largest open AI platform in China based on the number of developers as of December 31, 2020.