After a collection of earlier makes an attempt that didn’t pan out, TikTok rival Triller is lastly a publicly traded firm.
Having accomplished a merger with Hong Kong-focused monetary companies firm AGBA, the brand new Triller Group Inc. debuted on the NASDAQ change on Wednesday (October 16).
As of mid-day Jap time, Triller Group’s inventory (ticker image ILLR) was buying and selling at $4.45 per share, down about 20% from its opening worth of $5.60. Shares had spiked on opening to as excessive as $6.52 earlier than pulling again.
Its present share worth provides Triller Group a market capitalization of round $705 million – nicely wanting the $4 billion that Triller and AGBA focused after they introduced the merger final spring.
The brand new Triller Group operates two essential companies: Triller Corp. and AGBA Group Holding Restricted.
Beneath the phrases of the all-stock merger, Triller shareholders acquired 70% of the mixed firm’s excellent widespread inventory, whereas AGBA shareholders acquired 30%.
The itemizing marks the fruits of a number of years of efforts by Triller to go public, which included a proposed SPAC merger with SeaChange Worldwide, focusing on an preliminary valuation of $5 billion, in 2022.
When that fell by way of, the corporate then aimed for a direct itemizing, in what it mentioned could be “the most important creator IPO in historical past.”
That, too, did not materialize, and the corporate launched one more bid in 2023 earlier than saying the AGBA merger in April 2024.
Beneath the plan introduced at the moment, Triller co-founder Bobby Sarnevesht was slated to function CEO of Triller Corp., whereas Bob Diamond would function Group Chairman and AGBA Chairman Wing-Fai Ng was slated to be Group CEO. Extra not too long ago, the businesses introduced that Sarnevesht would additionally function a Director of the merged firm.
In an announcement on Tuesday, Triller Group mentioned it will reveal particulars about “future management, technique and goals” on October 22.
Each of the companies that comprise Triller Group confirmed indicators of monetary pressure previous to the merger.
AGBA, a Hong Kong-focused monetary companies firm that claims 400,000 clients, reported a 55.8% YoY drop in revenues within the first half of 2024, pushed by a steep drop in commissions, which it attributed to “the financial recession [in China] and outward migration in Hong Kong.”
Within the years earlier than the merger, Triller was hit with a collection of lawsuits over non-payment of licensing charges for music on its platform, together with a 2022 swimsuit from Sony Music, accusing the corporate of utilizing “thousands and thousands of {dollars}” of music with out authorization. That swimsuit was settled in 2023, however Triller then confronted one other lawsuit, this one from Common Music Group over allegedly unpaid music licensing charges.
In an SEC submitting earlier this 12 months, prematurely of its deliberate IPO, Triller revealed that it owed music rightsholders $23.6 million in unpaid charges. The corporate, which had raised greater than $420 million from buyers, had lower than $1 million in money and money equivalents available.
As a part of the merger plan agreed to by shareholders in September, Triller Group has put aside 50 million shares of the corporate to be “utilized towards future settlement of sure Triller authorized and monetary obligations.”
On the present market worth, these shares are value $222.5 million.Music Enterprise Worldwide
