By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 12th, 2024
Going by Didi’s updates prospectus, Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc has shown interest in acquiring a share of up to $750 million in the IPO.
China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc is expecting that an IPO could value it at over 60 billion. An SEC filing made Thursday shows that the company is going to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol ‘DIDI’.
Didi will offer 288 million American Depository Shares (ADS) or 72 million Class A common stock, valued at $13-$14 each. At the upper end, the company could raise $4.03 billion, making it the biggest US IPO of 2021. It would also be the biggest U.S. share sale done by a Chinese company since 2014.
Moreover, in case of an over-allotment, the company could sell 43.2 million extra shares thereby raising an extra $605M.
Initially, Didi (Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc.) wanted to list on the Hong Kong Exchanges (HKEX) but turned instead to NYSE. The business sought to mitigate risks for increased regulatory scrutiny in its practices, including using part-time drivers and unlicensed cars.
Already, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s market regulator, has launched an antitrust probe on Didi. Investigations will determine if Didi has used unfair competitive practices, in addition to transparency in the ride-hailing pricing mechanisms. The probe is the latest, with Alibaba Group (HKG: 9988) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG: 0700) having preceded.
Concerns over more Chinese regulatory crackdown have now cut the company’s IPO valuation by 33%. The drop was also attributed to uncertainty in the company’s growth prospects.
Didi Market Perspective and NYSE IPO
Going by Didi’s updates prospectus, Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc has shown interest in acquiring a stock of up to $750 million in the IPO. Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Ltd. (SGX: TEKB) would also like to subscribe to $500 million worth of stock. Other giant tech firms in Asia counted as investors are SoftBank Group Corp (TYO: 9984), Alibaba, and Tencent.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS), JPMorgan Chase and Co (NYSE: JPM), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) are the IPO’s lead underwriters. On Thursday, Didi added to this cluster to include Barclays, Citigroup, and BofA Securities, among others.
Founded in 2021, the ride-hailing firm operates in 15 countries internationally, making it one of the top-five private start-ups worldwide. The firm also has over 490 million annual active users globally and it intends to reach 800 million by 2022.
As the company recovered from pandemic-inflicted sales, its Q1 revenue more than doubled year-on-year to reach $6.4 billion. The company also posted a profit for the same period. Net income was $837 million before shareholder payouts, with a comprehensive net income of $95 million.