Didi Chuxing, China's Ride-Hailing Giant, Unveils U.S. IPO Filing -- Update

By Corrie Driebusch 

Didi Chuxing Technology Co., the Chinese ride-hailing behemoth, made its IPO papers public on Thursday, setting the company up to raise billions and begin trading publicly in the U.S. in July.

Didi, which filed under its formal name of Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc., could fetch a valuation upward of $70 billion, people familiar with the matter said, a number that could stretch even higher amid investors' ravenous appetite for newly public, high-growth companies.

The company is expected to raise roughly 8% to 10% of the valuation amount in the offering, people familiar with the matter said, money the company says it will use to invest in technology, grow its business outside of China and introduce new products.

Much like Uber Technologies Inc. in the U.S., Beijing-headquartered Didi operates a smartphone app where users can hail rides, as well as regular taxis and carpooling services. Didi is known for successfully pushing Uber out of China, winning a bruising price war that ended in 2016 when Uber merged its China unit with Didi in exchange for a stake in Didi.

Didi hasn't yet selected an exchange but said it plans to list its American depositary shares under the symbol DIDI.

For the full year 2020, the filing shows the company posted revenue of 141.74 billion Chinese yuan, equivalent to $21.63 billion, down 8.4% from a year earlier as the coronavirus pandemic led to quarantines, travel restrictions and limitations on public gatherings.

Like many technology startups, Didi has a history of losing money, though in the first three months of 2021, it posted a profit of 196 million yuan, or about $30 million. For 2020, it posted a net loss of 10.68 billion yuan, equivalent to $1.63 billion, and it also lost money in the full years 2018 and 2019.

The value of all transactions on Didi's platform fell by nearly a third in the first three months of 2020 from a year prior, hurt by the pandemic, and didn't start growing again until the second half of 2020.

Julie Steinberg contributed to this article.

Write to Corrie Driebusch at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 10, 2021 17:14 ET (21:14 GMT)

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