Star Xu, founder of crypto exchange OKCoin, is reportedly planning to arrange for his company's stock listing on HKEX through the acquisition of another firm, LEAP Holdings Group Ltd.
OKCoin plans
On January 10, Star Xu, whose real name is Xu Mingxing, applied to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) for permission to acquire a 60% stake in the construction and engineering company LEAP Holdings Group Ltd., based in Hong Kong. Through its company OKC Holdings Corp. Xu intends to acquire approximately 3.2 billion shares of LEAP Holdings Group Ltd at a price of HK $ 0.15 per unit, or approximately $ 0.02. So, in general, if the deal is approved, it will cost more than $ 60 million.
Preparing OKCoin to enter HKEX
In order to prevent the influence of these news on the market situation, trading in shares by LEAP Holdings Group Ltd. suspended. In the event that the transaction is successful, one can expect that OKCoin will enter the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, bypassing the IPO application process and a number of other requirements set by the regulator - that is, the company enters HKEX simply by acquiring a company that is already there.
Following the example of other crypto companies
Recall that last August, the Huobi crypto exchange took a similar step - for $ 70 million, the company bought a controlling stake in Pantronics Holdings, which are listed on HKEX. Meanwhile, other large companies in the crypto industry, especially those related to mining, in particular Bitmain, Canaan and Ebang, have applied for IPOs, but there has been no significant progress so far. So, the Canaan company, according to reports from Bloomberg, is already going to conduct a public offering in New York.