China's SenseTime Relists Hong Kong IPO After US Blacklisting

Chinese artificial intelligence start-up SenseTime said Monday it will press ahead with its Hong Kong listing, a week after it was blacklisted by the United States over accusations of genocide in Xinjiang. An initial listing earlier this month was pulled when the US Treasury announced new sanctions, saying SenseTime's facial recognition programmes were designed in part to be used against Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. On Monday, the company filed a revised listing with the Hong Kong stock exchange with trading expected to start December 30. "Due to the dynamic and evolving nature of the relevant US regulations, we have required to exclude US investors," the company wrote. Bloomberg News reported that SenseTime had secured about $512 million from nine cornerstone investors, including state-backed Mixed-Ownership Reform Fund and Shanghai Xuhui Capital Investment Company. The company is still planning to hit the pre-blacklisting $767 million target with 1.5 billion shares at HK$3.85 to HK$3.99 per share.