Didi IPO would give Hong Kong its dream comeback
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Refiles to remove broken link in third paragraph.
By Hudson Lockett
HONG KONG, June 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) -Hong Kong needs a big initial public offering. The city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI is up 6.4% this year and some decently sized convertible bond deals are starting to appear. A sizeable float could provide momentum to get the stock market closer to its 2021 all-time high; currently it is more than 40% below that mark. Didi Global is the obvious candidate.
The Chinese ride-hailing firm, according to The Information has been meeting with U.S. investors and may be eyeing a Hong Kong listing as early as next year. IPOs in the city have raised $1.5 billion so far this year, according to Dealogic, and financiers agree a single deal of at least $1 billion is needed to restore the flow. One banker likened the challenge to pushing a boulder: “If it’s already rolling, you’re fine, but if the boulder stops it takes a ton of energy to get it moving again.”
Didi first listed in 2021 in New York, where its $4.4 billion share sale valued the company at $73 billion. That deal pushed through despite Beijing's data security concerns, and Didi delisted one year later as a regulatory firestorm burned $1 trillion off the market value of tech giants led by Alibaba 9988.HK and Tencent0070.HK.
Beijing's stringent new vetting system for Chinese firms listing abroad was expected to divert business from New York to Hong Kong. Instead, it helped to almost totally halt foreign IPOs, and global investors' doubts over Beijing’s support for China’s private sector have ossified in the absence of more forceful policy action to boost growth.
It is exactly Didi’s tricky history that makes it ideal to lead Hong Kong’s comeback. An IPO by the company would show Beijing’s commitment to Hong Kong's future as a financial centre, demonstrate China's willingness to let private companies tap foreign capital as needed, and draw a stronger line under the regulatory saga.
Didi isn't in the best financial health: it reported a net loss of 1.4 billion yuan ($193 million) in the first quarter, despite a 15% jump in total revenue. Its valuation, too, would be lower than earlier: Didi's stock, traded over-the-counter, values the firm at $22 billion. But the company's re-emergence as a listed name could be just the thing to help others catch a ride.
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CONTEXT NEWS
Didi Global has been meeting with U.S. investors in recent months about the possibility of a Hong Kong IPO in 2025, according to The Information. The company says it has no timetable for a listing yet.
Initial public offerings in Hong Kong have raised $1.5 billion so far in 2024, 22% lower than in the same period last year, according to data from Dealogic.
($1 = 7.2475 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Hong Kong's IPO fundraisings collapse https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRV-BRV/gkvllddrmvb/chart.png
Editing by Una Galani and Aditya Srivastav
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