Meituan-Dianping, a Chinese on-demand services unicorn, is moving further along its IPO process with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx), kicking off the Pre-deal investor education on August 27, with a global roadshow on September 3, bookbuilding (stock pricing) by September 13 and a public debut 7 days later, on September 20.
Its IPO is valued at between US$40 billion to 60 billion currently.
In the past 15 years, Meituan began as a Groupon-like app and has gradually moved towards offering other services like restaurant reviews, restaurant reservations, movie ticketing, food & beverage delivery, online travel services to even ride-hailing.
Today, Meituan has 310 million annual transacting users, and 4.4 million merchants onboard, across more than 2,800 Chinese cities and counties.
Takeaways
– Meituan-Dianping is heading for a September 20 HK IPO at a valuation of $40 to $60b.
– Underwriters include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America. China Renaissance will be the financial advisor for this IPO.
-The firm, engaging in competition with lots of local tech giants, needs public market capital to fund a uphill battle in areas like ride-hailing, food delivery and online travel
-The firm will have to grapple with investor fatigue in Hong Kong amid underperformance of by Chinese tech giants.
Editor: Shiwen Yap, Ben Jiang