Ane Logistics, a China-based small freight services provider backed by insurer Ping An and dairy product manufacturer Yili, has filed for an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The size of the offering has not been disclosed but the company was looking to raise $500m, according to a Bloomberg report in February this year. CICC Capital and JPMorgan Chase are lead underwriters for the flotation.
Founded in 2010 as Shanghai Anneng Juchuang Supply Chain Management, Ane provides a less-than-truckload (LTL) logistics network across its home country. It logged $1.1bn in revenue in 2020, making a net loss of approximately $34m.
The company had most recently secured $180m in a February 2021 series I round led by asset manager CPE and backed by Ping An’s Shanghai Yunmao Investment Centre, Hongkong Jingang Trade Holding, Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments and a subsidiary of Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group.
Ane had received $125m in a series H round featuring Advance Step, a subsidiary of Centurium Capital Partners, which is owned by private equity firm Centurium Capital Management, in January 2020.
Topaz, formerly a subsidiary of private equity firm Warburg Pincus before it was acquired by Advance Step, had taken part in Ane’s $50m series G round the year before. It had completed a $21.7m series F in 2018 with contributions from Mass Priority Limited and Perfect Marina.
Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital sold its stake in Max Choice in December 2016 and it then became a subsidiary of CDF Ane, the latter having taken part in a $150m series E round five months earlier that included Fanatic C, an entity of alternative investment manager CDH.
Mulan Holdings, a vehicle for investment firm Carlyle, had joined investment bank Goldman Sachs’s Kuanjie Investment Centre and MBD 2015 Offshore units in a $150m series D round or the company in 2015.
Topaz backed a $64.6m series C round for Ane in 2014 after providing $165,000 in series B funding the year before. Ane’s earliest funding took place in early 2013 when it received $74,000 from Sequoia.
Ane’s major shareholders include Centurium Capital, which owns a 27.8% stake, followed by CDH Investments (10.4%) CPE (6.9%), NWS Holdings, Ping An, Carlyle Group, GBA Investments and Goldman Sachs.
