Ride-hailing giant Didi targets $60b valuation in NYSE debut

Didi Chuxing, China's largest ride-hailing company, is aiming for a valuation of more than $60 billion in its New York Stock Exchange debut, setting it up for what is likely to be the biggest US initial public offering this year.

It set a price range of between $13-14 per American depositary share and said it would offer 288 million such shares in its IPO. At the upper end of the price range, Didi expects to raise a little more than $4 billion.

Four ADSs represent one class A ordinary share, it said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that was registered under its formal name Xiaoju Kuaizhi.

The IPO will be one of the biggest share sales by any Chinese company in the United States since Alibaba raised $25 billion in 2014.

However, the terms of the offering suggest a conservative approach from Didi, which had at one point been in talks to raise as much as $10 billion at a valuation of nearly $100 billion.

The company is backed by Asia's largest technology investment firms including SoftBank Group Corp, Alibaba Group Holdings and Tencent Holdings.

Before settling for a New York float, Didi had considered Hong Kong as a potential listing venue for a multibillion dollar IPO in 2021.

Excluding China, Didi, the world's largest mobility-technology platform, operates in 15 countries and has more than 493 million annual active users globally.

It counts as its core business a mobile app used to hail taxis, privately owned cars, car pool options and even buses in some cities.

It became the top online ride-hailing business in China after market-share battles with Alibaba-backed Kuaidi and Silicon Valley-based Uber's China unit. Both were merged with Didi when investors sought profit from the money-losing businesses.

In 2016, Uber Technologies sold its operation to Didi for a 17.5 percent stake in the Chinese firm, which also made a $1 billion investment in Uber. The US firm now owns 12.8 percent stake in Didi, according to the IPO filings.

In addition to ride-sharing, Didi operates different businesses around mobility, including electric vehicle charging networks, fleet management, car making and autonomous driving.

Goldman Sachs (Asia), Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters.

Didi added more than a dozen new ones on Thursday, including BofA Securities, Barclays, China Renaissance, Citigroup, HSBC and UBS Investment Bank.