Chinese home rental platform Q&K seeks US IPO

NEW YORK - Q&K International Group, which operates a long-term apartment rental platform in China, filed on Monday for an initial public offering (IPO) on the US stock market.

The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "QK," with an expectation to raise up to $100 million, according to its prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Morgan Stanley and China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.

Founded in 2012, the Shanghai-based company booked $130.8 million in net revenue for the nine months ended June 30, 2019, showed its prospectus.

Long-term apartment rental refers to apartment rental with a lease term of one month or longer.

Driven by the rapid urbanization, rising housing prices, millennial mindsets of sharing economy and supportive government policies, China's long-term apartment rental market is experiencing rapid growth, said the company.

The market size, as measured by rents paid by tenants, reached 1,512 billion yuan ($211.5 billion) in 2018 and is expected to reach 3,070.6 billion yuan in 2024, according to its filing.