Chinese trucking startup seeks US$1.6 billion in US IPO

FULL Truck Alliance Co, an Uber-like trucking startup, is looking to raise as much as US$1.57 billion in an initial public offering, which would make it one of the biggest US listings by a Chinese company this year.

The firm, backed by investors including SoftBank Group and Tencent Holdings, is offering 82.5 million American depositary shares for US$17 to US$19 apiece, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. There is a concurrent private placement in which the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board and Mubadala will each purchase US$100 million worth of Class A ordinary shares.

At the top of that range, the IPO would rival January's listing by Beijing-based RLX Technology, which raised more than US$1.6 billion including so-called greenshoe shares. Full Truck Alliance's offering also has a provision for underwriters to issue additional greenshoe stock, which would likely push it past RLX's total.

The price range values the trucking startup at as much as US$20.6 billion, based on the outstanding shares listed in the prospectus. It notched a US$12 billion price tag in a US$1.7 billion funding round last year, Bloomberg News reported.

Full Truck Alliance will follow the successful debut by Kanzhun, the Chinese online recruitment platform whose shares almost doubled in the first day of trading on Nasdaq last week. Kanzhun's US$912 million offering priced at the top of the marketed range, unclogged the pipeline for share sales by China-based companies after several others had put plans for US listings on hold.

Companies based in China and Hong Kong have raised US$8.4 billion in US IPOs this year, more than four times the amount at this time last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Guiyang-based startup, known as Manbang in Chinese, intends to use the proceeds for investment in infrastructure development and technology innovation, expansion of service offerings and general corporate purposes including working capital needs and potential acquisitions and investments.

The company posted net revenue of 2.58 billion yuan (S$535 million) in 2020, with its net loss widening to 3.47 billion yuan from 1.52 billion yuan in 2019.

Manbang has been facing stiffening competition as rivals try to win a slice of an evolving market. Giants from car-hailing leader Didi Chuxing Technology to Alibaba Group Holding are introducing technology to streamline shipping, connecting merchants with truckers and delivery firms.

Formed by a merger between China's two largest truck-sharing platforms - Huochebang and Yunmanman - Manbang's backers include Alphabet's CapitalG, Sequoia Capital China, Fidelity International and Jack Ma's Yunfeng Capital.

Full Truck Alliance will set the final IPO price on June 21, according to a term sheet obtained by Bloomberg News.

The offering is being led by Morgan Stanley, China International Capital and Goldman Sachs Group. The shares are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol YMM. BLOOMBERG