(Yicai) March 6 -- ByteDance is starting a new round of options repurchases from its employees to enhance staff loyalty and to control the TikTok operator’s equity structure should it choose to go public, Yicai learnt today from a source close to the Chinese tech giant.

ByteDance is offering to buy back stock options from its current employees at a price of USD170 per share, more than last year’s offer of USD160 per share, the person said. This is to reflect the 20 percent gain in the Nasdaq Composite Index in the last six months. Ex-staff members will receive USD145 per share.

ByteDance has been repurchasing stock options every year since 2017. Last year, around 7,000 TikTok employees based in the US were included in ByteDance’s options buyback, giving them the same opportunity to monetize their stock options as China-based staff.

In December last year, ByteDance said it will repurchase USD5 billion worth of shares from investors at a price of USD160 per share, which would lower the company’s valuation to USD268 billion.

ByteDance’s revenue soared 43 percent in the third quarter last year from the year before to USD30.9 billion, according to reports that have yet to be corroborated by the Beijing-based firm. This was twice as fast as Facebook operator Meta.

Editor: Kim Taylor