M17 Entertainment prices US$60m NYSE IPO below range

[HONG KONG] Taiwanese live-streaming company M17 Entertainment has raised US$60m from a New York Stock Exchange IPO after pricing the deal below the indicative price range, according to people close to the deal.

The company sold 7.5m American Depositary Shares or ADS at US$8 each, versus an initial range of US$10–$12. In the last day of bookbuilding Wednesday, joint bookrunners Citigroup and Deutsche Bank lowered the price guidance to US$8–$9.

One of the people said M17 was felt to be less attractive than other companies from the same sector because it is not a Chinese company.

M17 stems from last year's merger of Taiwanese video-streaming platform 17 Media and Singapore-based social networking and dating platform Paktor.

The company's loss for the three months ended March 31 2018 was US$26.9m compared to a profit of US$22.3m, or a loss of US$17.5m on a pro forma consolidated basis, for the same period in 2017. M17 provides live streaming in six markets – Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand.

REUTERS