ByteDance offers investors share buyback, valued at $268 billion-sources

FILE PHOTO: The ByteDance logo is seen at the company's office building in Shanghai

By Kane Wu and Josh Ye

HONG KONG (Reuters) - TikTok owner ByteDance is offering to buy back around $5 billion worth of shares from investors at a price that will value the company at about $268 billion, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The Chinese technology giant is offering to buy the shares at $160 each, the same price it offered employees last month.

One of the sources said the $268 billion valuation was about 10% lower than its value a year ago when it conducted a share buy back plan for investors.

The South China Morning Post first reported the news earlier on Wednesday. ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

ByteDance has been expanding into areas such as e-commerce but has started to retreat from a four-year foray into mainstream video games with a plan to wind down its Nuverse gaming brand, Reuters reported last month.

(Reporting by Kane Wu and Josh Ye in Hong Kong; editing by Miral Fahmy)