Photo/Shetuwang

Jan.18 (NBD) -- Maoyan Entertainment, a Chinese movie ticketing platform backed by tech behemoth Tencent, is on the edge of debuting in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The company will start taking orders from institutional investors on Friday and is scheduled to list on January 31, 2019. It plans to sell 132.377 million shares of its stock, with IPO price fixed at between 14.8 Hong Kong dollars (1.9 U.S. dollars) to 20.4 Hong Kong dollars (2.6 U.S. dollars) per share, reported Hong Kong-based news outlet South China Morning Post.

The latest fundraising attempt features Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley as joint sponsors, report said.

Maoyan's IPO plan was unleashed in 2016 at an annual meeting of Beijing Enlight Media, but the company had no comment on the issue.

In 2017, China's online ticketing industry was dominated by Maoyan, Alibaba-backed Taopiaopiao, and Weiying, with Baidu Nuomi's market share constantly diminishing.

Alibaba made all-out efforts to support the foray of Taopiaopiao into the online ticketing market. According to a report released by research institute Analysys in 2017, the market share acquired by Taopiaopiao, Maoyan and Weiying was 30.94 percent, 29.72 percent and 21.84 percent respectively.

At that time, Maoyan and Weiying recognized that Taopiaopiao would gain bigger advantage if no action was taken. 

Pushed by Tencent, the two ticketing platforms finally teamed up to establish Maoyan Weiying after several rounds of negotiations and bargaining, in a bid to brave the challenges posted by the rising Taopiaopiao.

In the first half of 2018, theaters in more than 600 Chinese cities, or 95 percent of the total pool, used Maoyan to sell tickets online, giving the company 60 percent of the market, while Taopiaopiao, took up another 30 percent.

Compared with Taopiaopiao, Miaoyan has an advantage in traffic, comprehensive layout as well as flexible mechanism, while Taopaopao surpasses Maoyan in cash flow and ecosystem.

In fact, despite gaining the majority of market share, Maoyan still faces problems. Amid the chilling winter of the culture and entertainment industry, Maoyan is plagued by the large-scale shutdown of theaters. In the first half of 2018, 167 theaters were closed due to serious financial pressure. Moreover, years of loss have caused tension on Maoyan's cash flow.

According to China International Capital Corporation, Maoyan can seek a way out in production, distribution, film screening, byproducts and comprehensive ticketing.

For example, China's live performance market reached 84.6 billion yuan (12.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, but the penetration rate of online ticketing was only 8.4 percent. As a beginner in this field, Maoyan is likely to step up efforts in the performance ticketing field in the coming future.

Email: wenqiao@nbd.com.cn