NEW YORK – Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing plans to raise up to US$4 billion (RM16.62 billion) in a United States initial public offering, reportedly one of the biggest in the country in the past 10 years.
The move comes despite simmering China-US tensions, with the technology sector a key issue of disagreement.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late yesterday, the company – under the name Xiaoju Kuaizhi – said it will put 288 million American depository receipts up for sale, priced at US$13 to US$14. A sale at the top end would value the firm at more than US$60 billion.
The IPO would be the sixth-biggest in the US in the past decade, according to Bloomberg News.
However, when it filed to list earlier this month, the firm warned that tensions between the US and China are an ongoing risk for its business, as is the possibility of action over antitrust regulations as Beijing cracks down on some of its biggest tech giants.
Didi Chuxing, which claims to have more than 15 million drivers and nearly 500 million users, is often the easiest and quickest way to order a ride in crowded Chinese cities.
Its services are now available in 16 countries, including Russia and Australia.
Founded in 2012 by Cheng Wei, a former executive at Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, the app has dominated the local ride-hailing market ever since it won a costly turf war with US titan Uber in 2016 and took over the latter’s local unit.
Its largest institutional shareholder is Japanese investment fund Softbank, which holds a 21.5% stake.
Previous filings showed that the firm suffered a loss of US$1.6 billion last year as it was battered by strict Covid-19 measures and travel restrictions to tackle the virus, which first emerged in China in late 2019.
But, it saw a net profit of US$800 million in the first three months of 2021, with the outbreak now largely under control in China, its key market. – AFP, June 25, 2021
