After the market cap of the Chinese smartphone maker swelled past the $100 billion marks, Xiaomi Corp. founder Lei Jun may finally rejoice, an amount his company fell well short of when it was listed two years ago.
The company’s stock rallied to a new high in Hong Kong on Wednesday by as much as 9.1 percent, making it the 13th stock in the city’s Hang Seng Index benchmark to have a market capitalization over $100 billion. With a market cap of HK$802 billion ($103 billion), it finished the day 7.6 per cent higher.
For its initial public offering, Xiaomi, which produces the majority of revenue from its smartphone company, originally eyed a $100 billion valuation, people close to the deal said in May 2018. But on its launch, it was only half that amount, and for much of its first two years as a public company, shares traded below the HK$17 offering price.
In August, after it was revealed that Xiaomi would be added to the Hang Seng Index, the stock saw its fortunes reverse. Shares have since more than doubled. During China’s “Double 12” shopping festival, strong sales helped fuel the 20 percent stock jump this month, and a proposal to raise the weighting of businesses like Xiaomi in the Hang Seng Index to 8 percent from 5 percent could lead to more gains.
Xiaomi recorded its fastest quarterly revenue growth in two years in November, while earnings beat the expectations of analysts. It remains one of the few big Chinese tech companies to experience good growth abroad while also benefiting from China’s embrace of 5G technology and the rival Huawei Technologies Co. gaining domestic market share.
Xiaomi’s Mi India sold 5 Million smartphones through mi.com, Amazon, and Flipkart in festive sales.
As part of the festive sales on its website, the Great Indian Shopping Festival on Amazon, and The Big Billion Days on Flipkart, which were held between October 15 and October 21, the brand said it sold 5 million smartphones.
During this time, over 15,000 brand retail partners across the country also doubled their revenue, Mi India said in an official release on Friday.
Xiaomi has for the first time became an Indian smartphone market leader replacing Korea’s Samsung, which had held the position for several years, as per IDC data from October-December.
Xiaomi topped the market for the fourth quarter with a 16 percent share trailed by Samsung and Reliance Retail, which is selling the JioPhone, IDC said. It didn’t give the numbers for players No. 2 and 3.
