Advertisement
IPO
Business

Didi files to raise US$4 billion in New York IPO, helping China’s dominant ride-hailing app catch up with Uber in value

  • Didi, which filed under the name Xiaoju Kuaizhi, plans to sell 288 million shares at US$13 to US$14 a share
  • The US IPO could value the ride-hailing company at up to US$67 billion

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
An autonomous vehicle branded with Didi Chuxing’s sign at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on Thursday, August 29, 2019. Photo: Bloomberg
Chad Bray
Didi Chuxing has applied to raise up to US$4 billion in New York, as China’s dominant ride-hailing app pushes ahead with the largest initial public offering (IPO) by a Chinese company in the United States since 2014 under a cloud of antitrust investigations at home.
Advertisement
The Beijing-based company, filing under the name Xiaoju Kuaizhi, plans to sell 288 million American depositary shares (ADS) at between US$13 and US$14 each, according to a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
The offering values Didi at about US$67 billion at the top end of its price range, almost 8 per cent higher than its US$62 billion valuation during the last fundraising round in 2019. The flotation of Didi’s stock would be the biggest by a Chinese company since 2014, when this newspaper’s parent Alibaba Group Holding raised US$25 billion in New York. The IPO also would be one of the largest in the US in the past decade.

02:05

China’s ride-hailing drivers install plastic shields to prevent coronavirus infection

China’s ride-hailing drivers install plastic shields to prevent coronavirus infection

Didi’s fundraising target is a substantial climb down from the US$10 billion contemplated earlier, which would have valued the company at up to US$100 billion as it marks its ninth birthday this month, putting it a nose ahead of Uber Technologies’ US$95.1 billion as of Thursday’s trading close in New York.

China’s regulators have begun an antitrust investigation into the business practices of Didi, with 90 per cent share of China’s US$3.9 trillion ride-hailing market, Reuters reported on June 17, citing sources familiar with the matter. Didi declined to comment, calling the Reuters report “unsubstantiated speculation”.
Didi-Chuxing's dominance of China's ride-hailing industry. SCMP Graphics
Didi-Chuxing's dominance of China's ride-hailing industry. SCMP Graphics
Advertisement
The scrutiny of ride-hailing is the latest in a series of crackdowns on China’s technology industry, which included slapping Alibaba with a record 18.2 billion yuan (US$2.8 billion) fine in April for anti-monopoly behaviour. Dozens of Chinese tech firms including Didi, Tencent Holdings and JD.com, were warned by regulators in April to “pay full heed” to Alibaba’s case.

Listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the mnemonic DIDI, the company’s 2020 revenue fell 8.4 per cent to 141.7 billion yuan (US$21.9 billion), from 154.8 billion yuan in 2019, as social distancing measures and lockdown orders during the global coronavirus pandemic crimped travelling everywhere. The company reported annual losses in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Advertisement