Pinduoduo, a China-based group buying platform that counts internet group Tencent as an investor, set the terms yesterday for an initial public offering that could raise almost $1.63bn.
The company plans to issue 85.6 million American depositary shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market priced between $16.00 and $19.00, raising between and $1.37bn and $1.63bn.
Founded in 2015, Pinduoduo has built an app-based group buying platform that allows users to club together to get discounts on certain items, using either the app or social media platforms to form the buying groups. It had 343 million active users in the year ending June 2018.
The company cut its net losses by 80% to $83.7m in 2017 while more than trebling its revenue to $278m. It plans to put $580m of the IPO proceeds into growing its business and the same amount into research and development.
Pinduoduo has raised a total of $1.7bn in funding according to the filing, including $8.7m from investors including Gaorong Capital, the private equity firm then known as Banyan Partners, and venture capital group IDG Capital in 2015.
Both investors returned for a $33.3m round the same year that included VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners. Tencent invested $4.4m through a vehicle called Chinese Rose Investment in early 2016, shortly before Gaorong and an entity known as Castle Peak added $23m.
Private equity firm Cathay Capital’s FPCI Sino-French (Innovation) Fund joined investment entities Sun Vantage Investment and Sky Royal Trading to provide $50m for Pinduoduo in mid-2016.
Tencent, Sequoia Capital China, Gaorong and FCPI invested a further $113m in February 2017, before Tencent supplied another $100m four months later. Tencent then invested $989m in a $1.37bn round in March 2018 featuring Sequoia and Gaorong.
Tencent has an 18.5% stake in Pinduoduo that will be cut to 17% in the offering. The company’s other notable investors are Gaorong, which will have a 9.3% stake post-IPO, and Sequoia China (6.8%). Founder, chairman and CEO Zheng Huang will retain a 46.8% share.
Tencent and Sequoia China have each expressed interest in buying $250m of shares in the offering but have not confirmed their intentions.
Underwriters Credit Suisse Securities (USA), Goldman Sachs (Asia) and China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities will have a 30-day option to buy additional shares, though the number of shares in the greenshoe option has not been disclosed.