South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang announces IPO pricing, with market value up to $51 billion

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang recently announced that it has set the public offering price at 120 million shares at a price of US$27-30 per share through revised listing documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC) .

Based on the highest issue price , that is, if the public offering price is US$30, Coupang can raise up to US$3.6 billion (about 4 trillion won) .

The largest non-US IPO in the US since Alibaba

Based on the total number of Coupang's outstanding shares, its market value after listing will reach as high as US$51 billion , which will become the fourth largest IPO of an Asian company in the history of the US stock market and the largest IPO of a non-US company listed on a US exchange after Alibaba .

In addition, Coupang's shareholding structure was also disclosed. After listing, SoftBank Vision Fund holds 33.1%, Greenox holds 16.6%, Neil Meta holds 16.6%, and founder and chairman of the board Kim Bum-seok holds 10.2%.

Although Coupang founder and chairman Kim Bum-seok only owns 10.2% of Coupang's shares after the listing , Kim Bum-seok holds all Class B common shares , which will receive 29 times the differential voting rights per share . Even after the listing, Kim Bum-seok still has 76.7% of the voting rights, which is enough to ensure the stable operation of Coupang.

As for the returns of major investors, if the final issue price is set at the expected issue price range , it is estimated that the listing returns of existing shareholders will be as high as 11-13 times the principal . According to stock reports, the average price per share held by existing shareholders is only US$2.26.

As the largest and most popular e-commerce platform in South Korea, Coupang’s listing is naturally inseparable from its excellent performance capabilities.

Coupang's prospectus shows that its annual revenue also increased from US$4.054 billion in 2018 and US$6.27 billion in 2019 to US$11.967 billion in 2020 .

Coupang's per capita consumption increased from 178,000 won in 2019 to 283,000 won, and the number of active users (those who have purchased products in the last three months) also increased from 11.79 million to 14.85 million, which is an amazing performance.

After this listing, Coupang will have access to approximately 4 trillion won in funds for investment and development. According to Daily Business News, Coupang will use this funding to make a large amount of additional investment in its own transportation and logistics capabilities and IT developers. By then, I believe Coupang's pace will be faster and faster!

Coupang

IPO

Korean e-commerce