DOMESTIC smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. said Saturday there is no time frame for a mainland share offering, a delay that could affect China’s plans to lure its tech giants to list in the domestic market.

Xiaomi had been expected to raise up to US$10 billion, split between its Hong Kong and mainland offerings. But it last week postponed its mainland share offering until after it completes its scheduled July 9 listing in Hong Kong.

It did not say when it would restart its China depositary receipts (CDRs) issuance process or why it was postponing the mainland offering.

“We’ve had many rounds of discussions with the regulators and reached a consensus that to ensure the quality of our CDR issuance, it’s better that we go public in Hong Kong first,” Xiaomi’s chief financial officer, Chew Shou Zi, told a news conference in Hong Kong.

Xiaomi, which also makes Internet-connected devices, awarded its chief executive and co-founder Lei Jun about US$1.5 billion worth of shares for his contribution to the company, it said in an updated regulatory filing last week, in one of the largest one-off share-based corporate bonuses in years.

The US$1.5 billion stock, which has been awarded to Lei’s holding entity — Smart Mobile Holdings Ltd. — was recorded by Xiaomi as share-based compensation expenses April 2, one month before it filed for its blockbuster Hong Kong IPO.

Xiaomi is the latest high-profile company to lavish its senior executives with large stock awards ahead of a stock market flotation in recent years.

Its co-founder and president, Lin Bin, defended the board’s decision on the compensation.

“Many new-economy companies have compensated their chairmen or CEOs with stocks ahead of the IPOs. Xiaomi isn’t the first and won’t be the last to do so,” he said at the news conference.

Lin added Xiaomi’s board unanimously agreed on the stock award to Lei.

E-commerce firm JD.com awarded CEO Richard Liu stocks worth nearly US$900 million at the firm’s IPO price, ahead of its New York listing in 2014.

Xiaomi has lined up US$548 million from seven cornerstone investors including U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. for its Hong Kong IPO.

It is selling about 2.18 billion shares at a price range of HK$17 (US$2.17) to HK$22 each, representing a multiple of 22.7-29.3 times its 2019 earnings forecast by its underwriters. (SD-Agencies)