The Singapore-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has reportedly acquired 73.73 percent stake in a Hong Kong-based public limited company Pantronics Holdings, the manufacturer of power-related electrical and electronic products. The deal is valued at a total of $77 million with an average per share price of $0.35. The move could help Huobi to go public via a reverse initial public offering (IPO) or a reverse takeover (a takeover of a public company by a private company).
Pantronics Holdings is transferring more than 221 million of its ordinary shares to Leon Li, the chairman, Founder & CEO of Huobi Group, via several of the exchange's subsidiaries, according to shareholding disclosures filed by Pantronics Holdings on August 21 to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. On August 22, 2018, Pantronics Holdings halted the trading of its shares on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong due to a possible offer to be made under Rule 26 of the Hong Kong Codes on Takeovers and Mergers.
No official announcement of the deal has been made yet by either of the companies. Huobi is reportedly waiting for the confirmation and approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Li has reportedly said that the deal is just a rumor. He added that Huobi's business is currently not fully compliant on a global scale, so a reverse takeover would be very difficult to operate.
Huobi's move comes at a time when several other cryptocurrency companies are applying for an IPO in Hong Kong, including bitcoin mining companies Bitmain, Canaan Creative and Ebang.
Earlier this week, Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg's elder sister joined as a member of the Huobi Chain Expert Advisory Committee to provide comprehensive professional advice and insights on the blockchain technology, along with other seven members. Huobi also recently launched two new services - 'Huobi Automated Listing Platform' to streamline the token listing application process and 'Huobi Project Center for Blockchain Projects', a platform for all projects including projects listed and to be listed on Huobi Global and HADAX.
