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HONG KONG (Reuters) – Weibo Corp chairman Charles Chao and a state investor are in talks to privatize the Chinese company in a deal that would value the Twitter-like company at at least $ 20 billion and facilitate the exit of the main shareholder Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said two sources.
Chao, whose holding company New Wave is Weibo’s largest shareholder, is teaming up with a Shanghai-based state-owned company to form a consortium for the deal, the sources and a separate person, who have first-hand knowledge of the deal, said. folder.
The identity of the state-owned enterprise could not be determined immediately.
New Wave held a 45% stake in Weibo in February, valued at $ 5.6 billion according to Friday’s share price, followed by Alibaba with 30% valued at $ 3.7 billion, according to the company’s 2020 annual report.
The consortium is looking to offer around $ 90-100 per share to privatize Weibo, two of the sources told Reuters, which is an 80-100% premium over the average share price of $ 50 during the month. latest.
The privatization of China’s largest microblogging platform would pave the way for the sale of Alibaba’s second largest shareholder and customer, thereby wiping out one of its main media assets, the sources noted.
The sources declined to be identified due to confidentiality constraints.
Chao did not respond to a Reuters request for comment from Weibo’s parent, Sina.
Weibo and Alibaba also did not respond to requests for comment.
Report by Julie Zhu and Pei Li in Hong Kong; edited by Sumeet Chatterjee and Jason Neely
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