South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang Corp has raised US$4.2 billion in its initial public offering (IPO), making it the biggest listing in the US so far this year.
The Seoul-based firm, backed by Japan’s Softbank Group Corp, has shaken up the South Korean retail sector since launching 11 years ago with a platform guaranteeing same-day delivery, which helped turn it into the tech-savvy nation’s online market leader.
In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, Coupang said it had sold 120 million shares in the IPO at US$35 apiece — above its initial target range of US$27 to US$30 — giving it a market value of US$60 billion.
Photo: Bloomberg
It was yesterday to debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CPNG.
The blockbuster listing — the biggest in New York since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) US record US$25 billion offering in 2014 — would make an overnight billionaire of founder Kim Bom-suk, with the 42-year-old CEO’s 10 percent holding worth about US$6 billion.
Softbank, Coupang’s biggest shareholder, also stands to make US$16 billion, Bloomberg News said.
The Japanese conglomerate invested US$1 billion in the firm in 2015, in a deal that valued it at US$5 billion. That was followed three years later by another US$2 billion funding from Softbank’s Vision Fund, which said the firm was worth US$9 billion, Bloomberg said.
With many shopping online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the e-commerce giant’s net revenue jumped 91 percent year-on-year to US$11.9 billion last year.
Its combined net losses for the fiscal years from 2018 to last year came in at more than US$2.2 billion, the filing said.
“We may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain profitability in future periods,” it added.
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