Didi Chuxing, one of China’s largest firms, is planning its IPO in HongKong in 2021. Initially, it had plans to get listed in NASDAQ, New York, but the rising US-China tension bought the change in plans. The firm is backed by some huge tech companies like SoftBank, Tencent and Alibaba. Reports from anonymous sources say that it has already started talks with banks for the IPO.
About Didi Chuxing
Didi Chuxing is a Chinese vehicle for hire company that has its headquarters in Beijing. At present, it has over 550 million users and provides app-based transportation services, including taxi hailing, private car-hailing, social ride-sharing, bike-sharing and more. The app for the company was developed in 2012 and got many investments by giants like Alibaba and Tencent.
Target in Evaluation
Before going public reports suggest that Didi Chuxing wants to achieve an evaluation of $60 billion. In fact, it is even planning to raise funds for the same. Since the firm had started registering profits in the 2nd quarter of 2020 for the first time, many investors want to cash-in. Presently, the firm is evaluated at $56 billion with many of its shares trading below that.
The details about the IPO and the fundraising details have not surfaced yet. Didi even said that haven’t considered a definite timeline for the IPO when asked by Mobile Reuters. Reports even suggest there was a disagreement between the rival Meituan and Didi because of which their merger was called off.
Previous mergers of the company
Didi merged with its huge competitor Kuaidi in 2015 and created a smartphone-based transport service. The app can be used to hire various travelling mediums depending on the city and your budget. The company always wanted to get listed in NASDAQ but with deteriorating China-US relation that seems to be a long shot now.
Didi also has links with UBER that sold its operations to the company for a 17.75% stake in the company. So, seeing the bad stock performance of Uber and LYFT (another competitor) is another reason why the taxi service company is considering a Hong-Kong based IPO.
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