By Yingzhi Yang and Tony Munroe
BEIJING (Reuters) -Beijing-based ByteDance said on Friday it had no imminent plans for an initial public offering (IPO) after it conducted a thorough study.
"We believe the company doesn't meet the public listing requirements for now," TikTok owner ByteDance said in a statement published on its Toutiao account. Toutiao, also known as Jinri Toutiao, is a ByteDance-developed Chinese language news aggregator.
ByteDance last month hired former Xiaomi (OTC:XIACF) executive Shou Zi Chew for a newly-created role as chief finance officer, in a sign that the tech company is moving a step closer to a much-anticipated IPO.
Reuters has reported ByteDance has been exploring possibilities to list Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, in New York or Hong Kong, or obtain a public listing for some of its Chinese businesses including Douyin and Toutiao.
ByteDance has also been looking at a potential IPO for its non-China business, which includes TikTok that is not available in China, in Europe or the United States.