(Reuters) – China’s Full Truck Alliance Co Ltd (FTA) said on Tuesday it is aiming for a valuation of over $20 billion in its initial public offering in the United States, marking the second major U.S. stock market listing for a Chinese company this year.
FTA, which styles itself as the “Uber for trucks”, said it is offering 82.5 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at a range between $17 and $19 per ADS. Each ADS represents 20 Class A ordinary shares.
The top end of that range would mean the company could raise as much as $1.57 billion from the IPO. Chinese vaping firm RLX Technology Inc raised $1.4 billion in its U.S. IPO in January.
The listing plans come despite the U.S. having introduced measures that could result in foreign companies being delisted from American stock exchanges within three years if they do not comply with the country’s auditing standards.
Dealmakers say Chinese firms carrying out U.S. listings believe they will be able to comply with the rules and can also complete a secondary listing in Hong Kong or Shanghai within that time frame.
FTA, formed out of a merger in 2017 between two digital freight platforms Yunmanman and Huochebang, is led by Chief Executive Officer Peter Hui Zhang. Zhang was earlier the regional manager of the business-to-business unit of e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
In November, FTA was valued at nearly $12 billion after a $1.7 billion investment, Reuters reported. That investment round was led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital, Permira Capital and Fidelity.
China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd is also one of the company’s backers.
Morgan Stanley, CICC and Goldman Sachs are among the underwriters. The company will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “YMM”.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
