On July 19, Zhihu announced that Deutsche Bank's Hong Kong branch had made a conditional voluntary cash offer on behalf of the company, planning to repurchase up to 46,921,448 shares of Class A common stock at a price of HKD 9.11 per share, involving approximately 15.9% of the issued shares. After the news was announced, the market responded positively and Zhihu led the rise of Chinese concept stocks against the trend, with an intraday increase of up to 10.13% on the U.S. stock market's opening on the 19th.
The announcement stated that the purpose of this repurchase is to provide shareholders with a liquidity opportunity, while enhancing trading activity and updating the shareholder structure. The repurchase includes American Depositary Shares, with a proposed repurchase price of approximately $3.5 per ADS. Previously, the market generally believed that Zhihu's value was severely underestimated. According to the latest financial report, as of March 31, 2024, Zhihu held cash and cash equivalents of approximately USD 0.723 billion, far exceeding its market cap.
Since 2023, Zhihu has been at the forefront of the large-scale model field. On June 29, 2024, the release of Zhihu's "Straight Answer" is considered to be the Chinese version of Perplexity, opening up the commercial imagination space of Zhihu in the AI era. The stock price has risen for three consecutive days, with an increase of nearly 20%.