Hong Kong — Tencent Music Entertainment Group, controlled by China’s biggest social network operator, is seeking new funding at a $10bn valuation ahead of an initial public offering (IPO), people familiar with the matter said. The operator of karaoke and Spotify-like streaming apps plans to sell about 3% of its shares to strategic partners, including record labels, one of the people said, asking not be identified as the details were private. Tencent Holdings, owner of the WeChat messaging service, held about 62.45% of the music group at the end of 2016. SA’s internet and media company Naspers owns about one-third of Tencent. By forging an equity link with record labels, Tencent Music would be securing its right to hold on to vital streaming rights in China’s increasingly heated music market. Tencent spun out its music division after merging it with China Music to win over a larger slice of a domestic streaming market forecast to reach 4.37-billion yuan ($664m) of subscription revenu...
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