DOMESTIC question-and-answer platform Zhihu Inc., which went public in the United States in March last year, is planning a second listing in Hong Kong that could raise about US$300 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The New York-traded company is working with advisers on the listing and could file as soon as this month, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. Details of the offering such as size and timing are preliminary and subject to change, Bloomberg quoted the people as saying. A representative for Zhihu didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The news came after Bloomberg last month quoted a report by domestic media outlet The Paper as reporting that Beijing-based Zhihu plans to submit documents for its share offerings in Hong Kong in January. The Paper report cited public registry records as showing that some of Zhihu’s major shareholders, including a firm associated with Tencent Holdings Ltd., have pulled out, leaving chief executive officer Zhou Yuan with a 99.3 percent holding in the company, while chief technology officer Li Dahai owns the remaining stake. Zhihu told The Paper an ownership change is standard practice for Chinese companies that list overseas and the major shareholders and their stakes in the company are unchanged. But a day after the report, domestic news outlet BKEconomy quoted unnamed Zhihu sources as responding that the firm had never heard of the news that it would consider a secondary listing in Hong Kong. BKEconomy also quoted sources in the capital market as saying that it is unlikely that Zhihu will go public in Hong Kong as the intermediary fee for a second listing is high and it seems impossible for the firm to raise a large amount of money from a secondary listing. Founded in 2010 by Zhou, Zhihu, meaning “do you know” in classical Chinese, has become the largest online question-and-answer community in the country. The firm has ambitions to become much more than a text-based content platform. It has embraced popular multimedia functions such as livestreaming and other video content, introduced paid content and membership programs, and it even offers an online education and e-commerce service. (SD-Agencies) | 