A logo of the ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing can be seen on a building in Hangzhou in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang.
STR | AFP | Getty Images
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing filed for an IPO in what may be one of the biggest technology IPOs this year on Thursday, positioning major shareholders Uber and SoftBank for a profit.
The company had sales of $ 21.6 billion last year. The company posted revenues of $ 6.4 billion in the past quarter. Specifically, the company reported net income of $ 837 million before certain payouts to shareholders and total income of $ 95 million for the quarter.
Uber owns 12.8% of the company’s shares after selling its Chinese amusement ride to Didi in 2016, while SoftBank’s Vision Fund holds 21.5%.
Didi’s sales shrank nearly 10% between 2019 and 2020 when the Covid pandemic hit China hard last year. However, before the pandemic, sales rose 11% between 2018 and 2019. Additionally, sales rebounded in the first quarter as the pandemic recovery is in full swing, with first quarter growth of 107% year over year.
Part of the company’s profitability in the first quarter was due to gains on investments of $ 1.9 billion related to spin-offs and divestments.
For comparison, Uber posted a net loss of $ 108 million on revenue of $ 2.90 billion in the first quarter. For the full year 2020, Uber’s net losses were $ 6.77 billion on sales of $ 11.14 billion.
Didi was last valued at $ 62 billion after a fundraising round in August, according to PitchBook data, and is backed by investment giants such as SoftBank, Alibaba and Tencent. Bloomberg reported that the company could have a valuation of $ 100 billion at the time of going public.
The listing, which could be one of the biggest technology debuts in the world this year, comes as demand for ridesharing and travel companies returns due to a drop in Covid-19 cases and the introduction of vaccines. American counterparts Uber and Lyft have both stated that thanks to the recovery, they will be profitable on an adjusted basis by the end of this year.
Didi acquired Uber’s China business in 2016 in a complicated transaction in which the two companies acquired shares in each other. Didi said it sold all of its Uber stock in November and December last year.
Didi was founded in 2012 and claims to have 493 million active drivers per year and 15 million active drivers per year. Didi has been inducted on the CNBC Disruptor 50 list four times.
(The exact name of the company registered on the F-1 is Xiaoju Kuaizhi.) Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan draw.
Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.
Comments are closed.