HONG KONG – Didi Chuxing, the top ride-hailing app of China, is eyeing Hong Kong for a multibillion-dollar initial public offering (IPO) in 2021 after rethinking earlier bids to list in New York amid simmering tensions between Beijing and Washington.
With the backing of tech investment behemoths such as SoftBank, Alibaba and Tencent, Didi has begun initial discussions with investment houses for the IPO.
Sources said the firm, which is based in Beijing, is eyeing a valuation of more than $60 billion (46.4 billion pounds) by the time of launching the IPO in the first half of next year. It has also begun generating healthy profit since Q-2 and now some investors are keen to cash in.
The firm is also mulling a new fundraising round to bolster its valuation. Some of its shares are trading well below a valuation of $56 billion it reached in 2017 in the private secondary market.