Tencent delays its $2bn US stock listing due to soured market

Tencent Music Entertainment has delayed its listing on the New York Stock Exchange until November at the earliest, as sources told Reuters it would rather wait until global markets have stabilised.

The initial public offering (IPO) had been planned for as early as next week, which was set to raise at least $2bn (£1.5bn).

"Given the recent challenging market conditions, it won’t be a good idea for the company to go ahead with the listing timetable. It makes more sense to wait till the market recovers a bit,” a source close to the matter told Reuters last night.

Read more: With Spotify opting for an unusual IPO route, should investors be wary?

Tencent filed for its IPO earlier this month, setting an initial placeholder value of $1bn for registration purposes.

Its Swedish music streaming rival Spotify, which went public earlier this year, is currently valued at $27.1bn. However while Spotify is loss-making, Tencent turned a net profit of $263m in the first half of 2018.

Tencent Music declined to comment when asked by Reuters.

If it goes ahead, Tencent's $2bn IPO would be the second largest by a Chinese company on Wall Street this year, coming in just behind video streaming service Iqiyi which raised $2.4bn in March.