Chinese mobile games publisher CMGE is looking to float on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

As reported by the South China Morning Post, the Shenzhen-based publisher hopes to raise between $400 million to $500 million through the initial public offering.

However, it has cautioned perspective investors that it has only published games developed by third-parties in the 42 months leading to June 30th of this year.

The sticking point being that 10 of 26 licensed intellectual properties, and 20 out of its 70 game licensing agreements, will be in need of renewal by the end of next year.

“Although we possess proprietary intellectual properties and in-house development capabilities as a result of our acquisitions of Wenmai Hudong and 51 per cent equity interest in Beijing Softstar in May 2018, we expect the majority of our revenue to continue deriving from licensed games and games developed based on our licensed intellectual properties,” said CMGE.

“We cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully license games developed by third-party game developers and intellectual properties from their owners, or that our licensed intellectual properties will be developed into successful games.”

Float on

The news comes three years after CMGE delisted from the Nasdaq in the US in 2015. The publisher was bought in a $1 billion deal by automotive plastic parts company Zhejiang Century Huatong Group in 2016.

Formerly known as China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group, it's one of the largest Chinese mobile games publishers.

This year the publisher snapped up a 51 per cent stake in Beijing Softstar which allowed it to add popular titles Legend of Sword and Fairy, Xuan Yuan Sword and Monopoly to its repertoire.

According to the prospectus posted on the exchange’s website on Tuesday, CMGE has also launched 61 mobile games in the 42 months to June 30 of this year, in which 10 remained “active”.

Another 50 are planned to be launched by the end of 2019.