South Korea-based e-commerce company Coupang filed for a $1bn initial public offering on Friday that would provide exits to telecommunications group SoftBank and to its Vision Fund.
The company has not yet set a price range or declared how many shares it intends to issue. People familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that Coupang was aiming for a $50bn market valuation following the listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Coupang sells millions of products through an online platform. It directly employs a fleet of more than 15,000 delivery drivers and offers same-day, next-day or so-called dawn delivery – where customers order by midnight and receive the item before 7am.
Coupang grew its revenue fourfold between January 2018 and December 2020 and more than halved its loss, though the company’s net loss was still nearly $475m in the past year.
The company has not yet specified what it intends to do with the proceeds other than use the money for general corporate purposes.
The listing would follow more than $3.6bn in equity funding, including a $2bn commitment from SoftBank Vision Fund in November 2018 at a $9bn valuation. Greenoaks Capital Management and LaunchTime had contributed to a $158m series I round closed in May 2018.
SoftBank itself invested $1bn for a reported 20% stake in a 2015 transaction.
Greenoaks Capital Management, LaunchTime and Rose Park Advisors’ Disruptive Innovation Fund backed a $100m round in May 2014 that was led by Sequoia Capital. Seven months later, Greenoaks and Rose Park returned for a $300m round that also featured BlackRock Private Equity Partners and Wellington Management Company.
Coupang bought back $15.8m of series B shares and $27m of series D and E shares from Greenoaks over the course of March and April 2020, according to the draft prospectus.
SoftBank Vision Fund, Greenoaks, Maverick Holdings and Disruptive Innovation Fund all hold more than 5% in Coupang, though the company did not reveal individual sizes in its filing.
Goldman Sachs, Allen & Company, JP Morgan Securities, BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, HSBC Securities (USA), Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Securities, Mizuho Securities USA and CLSA have been appointed underwriters for the proposed offering.
