Meituan Dianping Raises $4.2B In Hong Kong IPO

Meituan Dianping went public in Hong Kong today, raising billions in the process. The Tencent-backed Chinese internet giant, which deals in everything from delivery to ecommerce to ticketing to group buying, is enormous, making its IPO an international event.

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The firm raised $4.2 billion in its debut, which, according to Reuters, came from 480 million shares sold at a value of around $8.79 apiece. The firm priced in the upper-half of its proposed range (in local currency). At its IPO price, Meituan is worth around $53 billion, a staggering sum.

Meituan, unlike the three core Chinese technology giants (Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu), is not profitable. In the lead-up to its IPO, Bloomberg reported that Meituan “posted a net loss of 19 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) last year,” though “the internet company more than doubled revenue to 33.9 billion yuan” over the same period.

Those losses could be the reason that Meituan’s $4.2 billion raise was impressive but not as impressive as the $6 billion it was said to seek before its debut.

Meituan’s decision to list in Hong Kong is notable, and it follows Chinese hardware giant Xiaomi in listing there. A host of other Chinese companies are choosing to list in the United States this year, including both 111 and NIO this week alone. Reaching a bit, it seems that the largest Chinese companies are opting to list closer to home than the smaller Chinese unicorns.

We don’t have trading information for Meituan yet, as its shares won’t trade hands publicly until next week. More when that begins.

Illustration Credit: Li Anne Dias