JD.com, China’s number 2 e-commerce company, has filed the draft prospectus to list its logistics unit with the Hong Kong’s stock exchange. A timing for the IPO was not disclosed but according to reports the company is eyeing to raise at least US$4 billion.
Late last year, the company got $4.5 billion in June via a secondary listing and listed its online healthcare unit JD Health International Inc. and raised over $3.4 billion. It expects $40 billion valuation for JD Logistics.
If successful, JD.com is poised to become China’s second-most valuable delivery company next to Shenzhen-listed SF Express. Company revenue for January-September of last year grew to 49.5 billion yuan ($7.65 billion) from CNY34.6 billion in the April-December period of 2019.
A regulatory crackdown on Chinese technology groups has dented valuations for such companies, Payload Asia learned. According to Nikkei Asia, companies like Alibaba and Tencent have been fined for violating antimonopoly rules, and last week Chinese authorities summoned 13 companies in the financial technology sector, including JD.com, for a “supervision interview.” In April, the financial arm of JD.com withdrew its application for an IPO on Shanghai’s STAR Market amidst the tech sector crackdown.
In recent news, JD Logistics started warehouse operations in Europe with the opening of two automated warehouses in Poland and Germany early in March. Amidst rapid digitalisation, the parent group expects China’s integrated supply-chain logistics services industry to grow from 2.02 trillion yuan in 2020 to 3.2 trillion yuan by 2025.