In this undated photo, Bilibili's logo is shown on a smartphone screen. (PHOTO / VCG)

Chinese mainland video streaming platform Bilibili Inc has received the green light from the Hong Kong stock exchange for its proposed second listing, people familiar with the matter said.

The US-listed technology firm could raise about US$3 billion from the share sale, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

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Details of the offering are not final and could change, the people said. A representative for Bilibili didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Companies like Bilibili benefited in 2020 from consumers trapped in their homes by the coronavirus pandemic. The entertainment platform had 202 million average monthly active users in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 55 percent increase over the same period in 2019

The approval was previously reported by IFR, which said the share sale could launch as soon as next week.

Bilibili would join a rapidly expanding group of mainland companies seeking a trading foothold in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, pressured by tensions between China and the US and beckoned by the Asian financial center’s increasingly hot market for new listings.

Prospective entrants include online car-sales website Autohome Inc and search giant Baidu Inc after a wave of such share sales in 2020 which saw some US$17 billion raised. Tencent Music Entertainment Group is also looking at selling shares in the city.

Bilibili, whose backers include Tencent Holdings Ltd, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Sony Corp, started in 2009 as a website serving up Japanese animation to eager young viewers in China. It has broadened its offering to become a platform incorporating anime as well as comics and mobile videogames, generating revenue from advertising, live-streaming and premium memberships.

Companies like Bilibili benefited in 2020 from consumers trapped in their homes by the coronavirus pandemic. The entertainment platform had 202 million average monthly active users in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 55 percent increase over the same period in 2019. Mobile device users accounted for over 90 percent of monthly active users in 2020, Bilibili’s latest annual report shows.

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Bilibili’s 2018 initial public offering in New York raised US$483 million and made chief executive officer Chen Rui a billionaire, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Its American depositary shares have risen more than ninefold from their original offer price of US$11.50, closing at US$110.44 each on Thursday and giving the firm a market value of US$39 billion.

In the last quarter of 2020, the company posted a net loss of 827.8 million yuan (US$127.6 million), widening from 382.8 million yuan in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, its sales jumped 91 percent to 3.8 billion yuan.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG are leading the deal.