MissFresh, a China-based online grocery retailer backed by consumer electronics manufacturer Lenovo and internet group Tencent, raised $273m in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Friday.
The company priced 21 million American depositary shares, each representing three ordinary shares, at $13 each, at the low end of the $13-$16 range it had set last week. They opened at $10.65 and closed at $9.66 at the end of its first day of trading, giving it a market capitalisation of roughly $2.5bn.
Founded in 2014, MissFresh runs an online portal that helps users buy fresh produce which is delivered to their homes in less than half an hour.
The company will use the proceeds from the offering to improve its technology and supply chain network, expand its market presence and boost sales and marketing efforts.
MissFresh had raised $1.7bn pre-IPO, having received $306m from Lenovo, Tencent, Qingdao Conson (Guoxin) Group and Sunshine Innovation Investment Centre in December 2020.
China International Capital Corporation (CICC) led a $495m round for MissFresh five months earlier, investing alongside Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Abu Dhabi Capital, Goldman Sachs and Tiger Global Management at a $3bn pre-money valuation.
Tencent and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners had co-led a $450m round for MissFresh in 2018 that also featured China Renaissance, Davis Selected Advisers, Glade Brook Capital Jeneration Capital Management, Poly Capital, Sofina and Tiger Global.
Tencent had already backed the company’s $230m series C-plus round, which was co-led by Tiger Global and Genesis Capital the year before.
Lenovo’s Capital and Incubator Group and Zhejiang Zheshang Venture Capital co-led a $100m series C earlier in 2017, participating together with Tencent, KTB Investment & Securities, Grand Flight Investment and China Growth Capital.
China Growth Capital and Yuanyi Capital had supplied $36m in series B-plus funding for MissFresh in 2016. It came in the wake of a $31m series B round the previous year led by Tencent and backed by Zheshang Venture Capital Management, after the corporate had reportedly joined GX Capital in a $10m series A.
MissFresh CEO Zheng Xu holds a 12.2% stake in the company post-IPO while Tiger Global’s Internet Fund IV owns 11.1%, the Qingdao Conson-manged Xiamen MissFresh Equity Investment Partnership 7.8%, Tencent 7.2%, Genesis Capital-backed entities 6.4% and company co-founder Bin Zeng’s Tigerteeth vehicle 5%.
JP Morgan Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, CICC Hong Kong Securities and China Renaissance Securities (Hong Kong) are lead underwriters for the offering.
Haitong International Securities, CMB International Capital, AMTD Global Markets, ICBC International Securities, Needham & Company, China Merchants Securities, ABCI Securities, GF Securities, Futu and Tiger Brokers are joint bookrunners.
The underwriters have the 30-day option to buy up to 3.15 million additional ADSs, potentially hiking the size of the IPO to approximately $314m.
Image courtesy of MissFresh.
