Jumia, the Germany-headquartered, Africa-focused online marketplace backed by several corporate investors, went public on Friday in a $196m initial public offering in the US.
The company issued 13.5 million American depositary shares on the New York Stock Exchange priced at $14.50 each, in the middle of the offering’s $13 to $16 range, valuing it at approximately $1.1bn. Payment services firm Mastercard bought another €50m ($56.5m) of shares in a concurrent private placement.
Founded in 2012, Jumia runs an e-commerce platform that operates in 14 African countries, but which made a $195m loss in 2018 against $150m in revenue according to the IPO prospectus.
The company operated through parent company Africa Internet Group (AIG), a partnership formed by e-commerce holding company Rocket Internet and telecommunications companies Millicom and MTN, until December 2018.
The IPO comes after at least $466m in funding, including approximately $85m from alcoholic beverage provider Pernod Ricard, which invested through its Pernod Ricard Deutschland subsidiary at a $1.6bn valuation, also in December 2018.
Insurance group Axa invested roughly $83m in the company in 2016, and telecoms firm Orange added $85.4m weeks later. Jumia had raised $150m in series C funding in 2014 at a $555m post-money valuation, $135m of which came from AIG.
Millicom had already supplied $35m of funding for Jumia in 2013, following a $26m series A round led by venture capital firm Summit Partners earlier in the year.
MTN will remain Jumia’s largest shareholder despite its stake being diluted from 29.7% to 19.5%. Pernod Ricard Deutschland bought $52.2m shares and its stake will increase from 5.1% to 8.4%, while Orange and Axa each invested $23.5m, and their stakes will each rise from 5.8% to 5.9%.
The company’s other notable shareholders are Rocket Internet (13.5% post-IPO), Millicom (6.3%), special holding vehicle AEH New Africa eCommerce (5.5%) and investment firm Blakeney Management (3.4%), while Mastercard’s investment will give it a 5.1% share.
Underwriters Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Global Markets, Berenberg Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets, Raymond James, Stifel Nicolaus and William Blair have a 30-day option to buy $29.4m of additional shares which would lift the size of the offering to $225m. Jumia’s opened at $18.95 on their first day of trading and rose to finish the day at $25.46.
