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Nov. 27 (NBD) -- China's largest game distributor iDreamSky Technology Holdings Limited (1119.HK) started taking investor orders on HKEX on Monday. 

It is expected that the dealings on the Stock Exchange will commence on December 6, 2018.

The number of offer shares under the global offering totals 126,972,000 and the actual number will be subject to the over-allotment option. The offer price is expected to range from 6 Hong Kong dollars (0.76 U.S. dollar) per share to 7.8 Hong Kong dollars (0.99 U.S. dollar) per share.

iDreamSky submitted its initial public offering application in May this year. The Shenzhen-based company once traded on Nasdaq and was later taken private in 2016.

According to the prospectus updated on Monday, Sony Corporation and investment firm Windcreek Limited are the cornerstone investors of iDreamSky. Both companies invested 5 million U.S. dollars respectively.

It is worth noting that Windcreek is a wholly-owned sub-subsidiary of the e-commerce giant JD.com.

Before Sony Corporation and JD.com invested in iDreamSky, Tencent Mobility Limited wholly owned by China's tech titan Tencent had already been one of the major shareholders of iDreamSky with a stake of 20.65 percent.

NBD noticed that with the participation of Sony and Tencent, the digital entertainment platform has pooled strategic investments from the top two game providers in the world. 

During the recent two years, iDreamSky has been developing a comprehensive layout leveraging its strong ties with partners.

After Tencent took holdings in iDreamSky, the two companies have been involved in deep cooperation in videos, payment services, IP development and operation, advertising, monetization of online traffic, game development and publishing, animation, and cloud computing.

As for the cooperation with Sony in the future, Jeffrey Lyndon Ko, president, executive director and co-founder of iDreamSky, stated Sony's businesses will be combined with iDreamSky's offline resources. iDreamSky could help Sony with its movie debuts and cooperation between two sides can also be forged in the game sector, Jeffrey Lyndon Ko noted.

Chen Xiangyu, CEO and Chairman of the Board of iDreamSky, commented Sony will bring the top-level game players to iDreamSky.

Chen further revealed collaborations between iDreamSky and JD.com in traffic, contents and offline businesses are also expected. 

Before JD.com's investment was disclosed, the digital entertainment platform and the e-commerce giant had announced the launching of an app integrating games, e-commerce and socializing at the end of October this year.

Recently the game industry has been undergoing great pressures brought by intensified supervision. A report on China's game industry showed the first half of 2018 saw a record low year-over-year increase of mere 5.2 percent in total revenue of the sector.

Under such circumstances, there is little development space for game publishers like iDreamSky, an institute analyst told media outlet the 21st Century Business Herald, and companies must seek development in both game development and publishing for further growth.

In Chen Xiangyu's view, Chinese game players now hold new standards for games after playing overseas games and the biggest problem confronted by China's game industry is that there are no quality games for users. 

To tackle this challenge, the companies should focus on improving quality of contents and user services, Chen added.

Email: wenqiao@nbd.com.cn