On March 23, 2021, Baidu, Inc. (“Baidu”, or the “Company”, 9888.HK) was listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), with offering size of US$3,083mm (pre-shoe)/US$3,546mm (after full exercise of green shoe option). CICC acted as Joint Global Coordinator, Joint Bookrunner and Joint Lead Manager in the transaction.

The transaction is the first-ever AI company to list in HK, the largest AI company IPO of all time, the largest HK secondary listing in 2021 YTD, and the 2nd largest overseas IPO of Chinese company in 2021 YTD.

About Baidu

Founded in 2000, Baidu is a leading AI company with a strong internet foundation. The company is China’s leading AI company and one of the world’s top 4 AI companies. Besides, Baidu is the largest Chinese search engine and the largest Chinese website around the world.

Baidu is committed to providing users with “simple and reliable” internet search products and services, covering all the search needs in the Chinese internet world. The company introduced marketing and promotion services based on search and provided business clients with online marketing and promotion platforms as the portfolio of search products became more and more diversified. With the arrival of the mobile internet era, the company explored in multiple areas including app stores and local life services, and started focusing on mobile ecosystem in 2018, which had achieved remarkable success. Furthermore, as the world’s leading AI platform company, Baidu keeps enhancing its AI, cloud and intelligent driving businesses. According to the company’s financial report, revenue from AI, cloud and other non-marketing businesses reached RMB 12.4 billion in 2020, and the company took a leading position in China in terms of the number of self-driving licenses and the smart speaker shipments.

CICC has continuously provided Baidu with comprehensive services in the capital market since 2020. Regarding the overall capital operation scheme and the HK secondary listing, CICC had a series of in-depth discussions with the Company, and was highly recognized by the client for its professional investment banking services, diligence and determination.

During the short time frame from kick-off to pricing when the global market experienced fluctuations, CICC actively assisted the Company to communicate with investors, boosting market confidence and thus ensuring its successful offering. The Company’s share price increased by 4.6% during the book-building process, which was a remarkable result compared with previous HK secondary listings.

The project will enable Baidu to continue to invest in technology, enhance commercialization of the company’s innovations centered around AI, further grow Baidu Mobile Ecosystem, and enhance and diversity monetization. Besides, the project will benefit the society by promoting AI technologies to empower traditional industries and accelerate the digital transformation.

The project is CICC’s 10th HK secondary listing since the introduction of Chapter 19C of HKEX Listing Rules, further solidifying CICC’s leading position in providing investment banking services to the global TMT sector and in the HK market.