Hong Kong’s Gaming Giant Razer Considers a U.S Listing

Hong Kong-listed gaming company Razer is considering a secondary listing in the U.S.

The company, who makes laptops, PC peripherals and other products for gamers, is currently listed in Hong Kong but was founded in the U.S. where it also headquartered.

Razer makes most of its revenue in the U.S. and is having internal talks on whether to pursue a listing in the country, said CEO Min-Liang Tan.

“I’ve definitely considered” a secondary listing in the U.S., Tan said in an interview. Gamers are asking “daily” why Razer doesn’t already trade on a U.S. exchange, he added.

Tan has said that the company was “in the midst of internal discussions” on whether to go public in the U.S. “We’ve got nothing to announce at this point in time but it’s something that we do look at.”

Razer had its first-half revenues jump 68% to $752 million this year and also swung to a profit of $31.3 million in the first six months of 2021. This was a jump back from a net loss of $17.7 million in the same period in 2020.

“The vast majority of business is actually out of the U.S., followed by Europe, and then Asia,” which is “primarily” driven by sales in China, Tan told CNBC. “I would say the makeup is still 40-50% in the U.S.”

Razer is also heavily investing in software and services.

The services division includes its Razer Gold virtual credits for gamers and Razer Fintech digital payments unit.

“We are now really focusing on scaling our B2B side of things,” Tan said, referring to business-to-business transactions. “Right now our focus really is to enable B2B for the fintech business and B2C [business-to-consumer] which is the virtual credits for the Razer Gold business.”
When asked if Razer Gold could become a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, Tan said Razer was “interested” in the world of crypto but had no immediate plans to make a move in the space.

“The curious thing about [Razer Gold] is we’ve actually kept it on a closed loop,” Tan said. “We could literally open it up on a blockchain tomorrow [and] it could literally be one of the biggest virtual currencies in the world.”

“I think it is definitely one of the areas we see a huge amount of potential,” he added. “But we are really taking our time to really understand the different cryptocurrencies out there, the blockchain technologies out there, before we do make a move.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.