(Yicai Global) March 22 -- Shares of Tencent Music Entertainment Group rose in pre-market trading after China’s biggest online music group reported a 7.2 percent increase in revenue for last year and said it planned to seek a secondary listing in Hong Kong.

Tencent Music [NYSE: TME] was trading 4.7 percent higher in New York at USD4.87 as of 7.34 a.m. local time today. The stock had ended down 8.1 percent yesterday before the earnings were released.

Revenue stood at CNY31.2 billion (USD4.9 billion) in the year ended Dec. 31, Shenzhen-based Tencent Music said in its financial report. Net profit fell 27 percent to CNY3 billion as the cost of revenue rose.

The company, which is controlled by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings, also announced that it will pursue a secondary listing of shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by way of introduction, meaning that it will not sell new stock or raise any new funds.

For the fourth quarter, net profit halved to CNY536 million (USD84.2 million), from CNY1.2 billion (USD188.6 million) a year earlier. Revenue fell 8.7 percent to CNY7.6 billion.

Tencent Music did not issue guidance for this quarter, but Executive Chairman Cussion Pang said that in the future the company will “focus on optimizing our cost structure and improving operating efficiency across our businesses while continuing to drive innovation, better user experiences and healthy industry development.”

The annual cost of revenue rose 10 percent to CNY21.8 billion in 2021, primarily because of  higher investment in new products, original content production, and content costs.

Income from online music services rose almost 23 percent to CNY11.5 billion last year driven by strong growth in revenue from subscriptions, advertising, and long-form audio, despite a decrease in digital album sales and sub-licensing revenue.

Revenue from music subscriptions soared 32 percent to CNY7.3 billion, mainly because of a 36 percent jump in online music paying users to a record high of 76.2 million. But the growth was partially offset by a 5 percent drop in average revenue per paying user, which slid to CNY8.9 (USD1.40).

Revenue from social entertainment services and others edged down 0.1 percent to CNY19.8 billion, due to fiercer competition from other entertainment platforms and changes in the business environment.

Editor: Futura Costaglione