Food-deliverer Meituan raises US$10 billion as its follow-on stock sale fetches top price amid ravenous appetite for Chinese tech deals
- Food delivery giant prices US$6.6 billion share placement at top-end of the marketing range
- Convertible bond tranches both priced at a conversion premium of 57.5 per cent
Meituan, China’s dominant food delivery platform, raised almost US$10 billion of additional funds overnight to finance its push into using autonomous vehicles and aerial drones in its operations.
The Beijing-based company raised US$6.588 billion by selling additional shares at HK$273.25 (US$35.25) each, and sold about US$3 billion of convertible bonds. The top-up shares placement, equivalent to 3.2 per cent of the company’s equity, was made at the top end of a marketing range of between HK$265 and HK$274 per share, according to a terms sheet seen by South China Morning Post.
Interest in the equity and bond offerings were so intense that the whole order book was filled by 5.30pm on Monday, overbought by 10.15pm and closed by 10.45pm. Banks orchestrating the deal created momentum in the book from the get-go by wall-crossing a small group of large institutions who were likely to participate, according to people familiar with the matter.
