ByteDance, Offers Buy Back Shares for Employees

JAKARTA - The Chinese company ByteDance, which is the parent of the short video application TikTok, is offering share buybacks to its employees outside the United States for 160 US dollars (IDR 2.5 million) per share. This was revealed according to a source familiar with the matter. Even this plan has been confirmed by the company.

The price per unit of restricted stock corresponds to an offer the company made to current and former United States employees in October, as reported by Reuters. At that time, the company wanted to buy at least 300 million US dollars (IDR 4.6 trillion) in shares at a price of 160 US dollars per share.

The price values the company at 223.5 billion US dollars (IDR 3,491 trillion), about 26% lower than the previous year's valuation, as reported by Reuters. Last year, ByteDance was valued at US$300 billion in buyback programs offered to its employees outside the United States.

The latest $160 price is higher than the $155 price set in the previous buyback in April.

A ByteDance spokesperson confirmed stock buyback plans for employees outside the United States, with the aim of providing liquidity options to staff through such programs. The company has offered a twice-annual buyback program to eligible staff since 2017.

Buyback programs allow employees to exchange their shares without having to wait for the company to list its shares on the stock market. An initial public offering (IPO) for ByteDance has been anticipated for years, but the company has stated since 2021 that there are no immediate plans due to the Beijing government's tight scrutiny of the Chinese tech giant.