NEW YORK/HONG KONG: Investment firm General Atlantic is seeking to sell part of its stake in ByteDance in a transaction that values the Chinese social media company at $550 billion, two sources familiar with the matter said, reflecting a sharp rise in the privately held group's valuation.
If completed, the deal would be the first stake sale since the Trump administration cleared the sale of the U.S. interests of ByteDance's TikTok unit in January. The $550 billion valuation represents a 66 percent increase from last year's share buyback that priced the company at more than $330 billion.
It also marks a roughly 15 percent jump from a secondary market transaction in November that valued ByteDance at $480 billion, according to sources Reuters cited last month. Secondary market deals involve existing shareholders selling stakes in unlisted companies to other investors.
General Atlantic, which first invested in ByteDance in 2017 when the company was valued at about $20 billion, began selling some of its shares in recent weeks and hopes to complete the transaction in March, one of the sources said.
The exact size of the stake being sold, the financial terms of the deal, and how much General Atlantic will retain after the sale were not immediately known.
The planned transaction underscores the sustained climb in ByteDance's private-market valuation and could boost prospects for other investors who expect gains when the company eventually goes public.
Both sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. ByteDance did not respond to a Reuters request for comment, while General Atlantic declined to comment on the proposed sale.
Valuations for private companies can vary widely in secondary transactions, and deal terms are typically not disclosed publicly. Any new trade is viewed as a gauge of investor appetite.
Internally, General Atlantic has valued its ByteDance holding at $550 billion, and it is reasonable for the firm to seek at least that price in a secondary sale, the second source said.
The proposed sale follows ByteDance's agreement to make TikTok's U.S. operations majority-owned by U.S. entities, addressing uncertainties that had clouded both companies since U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to ban the app over national security concerns.
The share sale also comes as some of General Atlantic's funds near the end of their lifecycle, the first source said. Private equity funds typically operate on 10- to 12-year cycles to raise capital, invest, and return proceeds to investors. General Atlantic CEO Bill Ford sits on ByteDance's board.
ByteDance, whose revenues have surpassed those of Facebook owner Meta, has become the world's largest social media company by sales, Reuters reported last year. The company's 2025 annual profit could reach about $48 billion.
Separately, venture capital firm HSG, formerly Sequoia Capital China, is raising a continuation fund to take over some of its ByteDance shares from maturing funds, at a valuation of $350 billion to $370 billion, it was reported in January.
