(Yicai Global) March 17 -- Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili has been given the greenlight for a secondary listing in Hong Kong that could be worth as much as USD3 billion.

The offering size was not included in the announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s website yesterday but Chinese media Sina has previously reported that it could reach USD3 billion.

The Shanghai-based firm is being guided by financial services giants Morgan Stanley Asia, Goldman Sachs Asia, JP Morgan Securities Far East and UBS Securities Hong Kong, it said in its listing prospectus.

Investors will be hoping that the Hong Kong listing will follow the trend of its Nasdaq stock [NASDAQ:BILI] which has gained more than eight-fold since the firm went public in March 2018 and hit an all-time high of USD157.66 last month. Yesterday shares closed up 1.49 percent at USD113.31.

Despite the glittering prospects, Bilibili has yet to turn a profit. Its deficit more than doubled last year from the year before to CNY2.6 billion (USD400 million). Revenue, while up 77 percent year on year to CNY12 billion (USD1.8 billion) as gaming and advertising revenues surged, could not match expenses, with marketing costs nearly tripling.

Bilibili will use the funds to support the company’s healthy development by growing its content ecology and communities, to invest in technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud technology, for sales and marketing so as to promote user growth and improve brand awareness and the rest will be used to supplement working capital, it said.

As of Jan. 31, the firm’s biggest shareholder was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Chen Rui with 14.2 percent equity and 44.6 percent voting rights, while founder and president Xu Yi held 8 percent of the company and 24.7 percent of the voting rights. Internet giant Tencent Holdings had a 12.4 percent share and 4 percent voting rights.

Editor: Kim Taylor