(Yicai) Dec. 7 -- China’s largest unicorn ByteDance will reportedly repurchase USD5 billion worth of shares from investors. The firm has not yet released any plan to go public.

ByteDance plans to buy back shares for USD160 apiece, the same price at which the Beijing-based company repurchased some employee stock options in October, The Paper reported yesterday, citing an insider at the Chinese owner of TikTok.

This share buyback plan sets ByteDance’s valuation at about USD268 billion, which is 10 percent lower than in September last year, when ByteDance carried out its latest share repurchase from investors, and 33 percent lower than the peak of USD400 billion in 2021.

ByteDance recently made large-scale adjustments to its business. Its main video game publisher Nuverse will make organizational and business changes, shifting its focus to exploring innovative games and technologies and scrapping all unreleased game projects.

ByteDance’s virtual reality arm Pico is also undergoing organizational restructuring, reducing its staff in the marketing, gaming, video, and other teams.

Although ByteDance’s main businesses TikTok and TikTok Shop are facing restrictions in many countries, the company logged a 34 percent jump to USD24.5 billion in revenue in the first quarter and an over 40 percent increase to about USD29 billion in the second quarter, The Information reported, citing sources at the company. ByteDance did not comment on the data.

Editor: Futura Costaglione