Asian Tech Press (Dec 20) -- U.S.-blacklisted AI company SenseTime announced on Monday that it has reopened its Hong Kong IPO, having secured about $512 million from nine cornerstone investors.

SenseTime said in an announcement on Monday that it is relaunching its initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today, with the offering size and pricing range remaining the same as before.

The company will issue a total of 1.5 billion shares at an offering price of HK$3.85 to HK$3.99 per share, raising about HK$6 billion. And the shares will be available for subscription at 12:00 noon on Dec. 23 and are expected to be listed on Dec. 30.

In addition, SenseTime has replaced five of the nine cornerstone investors it previously introduced, including Guotai Junan Investments, state-owned Xuhui Capital, HKSTP Venture Fund, and two other companies.

The cornerstone investors have agreed, subject to certain conditions, to subscribe for a total of approximately $512 million (HK$3.99 billion) of the relevant number of offering shares that can be subscribed for at the offering price.

The IPO was scheduled to be priced on Dec. 10 and start trading on Dec. 17, but the U.S. Treasury Department announced that SenseTime would be added to the list of "Chinese military-industrial complex companies", a list of companies in which U.S. investors will not be able to invest. So the Chinese AI firm had to postpone the IPO and return the subscription funds to retail investors.

Last week, SenseTime announced that its global offering and listing will be delayed, but the company remains committed to completing the global offering and listing as soon as possible.