Bitcoin Mining Firm Canaan Slashes IPO Target — and May Not Go Public Anytime SoonCanaan, one of the world’s largest bitcoin mining firms, may be having second thoughts about its plan to go public in one of the cryptocurrency industry’s highest-grossing initial public offerings (IPO) to date.
Chinese Bitcoin Mining Firm Delays IPO
The Hangzhou-based Canaan had been one of at least three Chinese bitcoin mining firms planning to go public on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX), along with Ebang and Bitmain — the crypto industry’s most valuable company.
However, Reuters reports that Canaan’s filing documents lapsed on Thursday, which marked the six months after the firm had initially submitted them to HKEX. According to unnamed sources close to the deal, both HKEX and local regulators were concerned about the firm’s business model and had not yet received satisfactory answers.
Significantly, Canaan had also reportedly slashed its IPO target by a full 80 percent, to $400 million from an initial goal of as much as $2 billion.
The sources cited in the report said that while Canaan can refile its listing application with updated financials, it’s not likely that the IPO would occur before the turn of the year. Ebang, similarly, is no longer expected to list its shares until at least 2019.
“With the bitcoin price dropping so much this year, there’s a lot of uncertainties over their business. If we cannot forecast their financials, how can we sell their IPOs?” commented one senior banker.
CCN |
https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-mining-firm-canaan-slashes-ipo-target-and-may-not-go-public-anytime-soon/