China’s largest taxi on-demand firm Didi plans U.S. IPO in 2018

Ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, Uber Technologies Inc’s main rival in China, is working towards an initial public offering in the United States that would likely take place in 2018, a person with knowledge of the plan said on Monday.

Didi is valued at around $25 billion and its stock market listing would be the most high-profile by a Chinese company in the United States since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s listing two years ago.

Didi has ruled out a stock market flotation in China, said the person, who declined to be identified as the discussions about a listing were private. There are nearly 800 companies waiting to get approval for an IPO in China, making it hard to predict when a listing might happen.

A Didi spokeswoman in Beijing said the company currently had no IPO plan.

Bloomberg earlier reported that Didi was targeting a New York listing as soon as next year. But the person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters a 2017 listing would be too early.

Didi is currently seeking to raise $3 billion from investors in its latest funding round, which includes an investment of $1 billion from Apple Inc. It had originally planned to raise $2 billion, but hiked its target after Apple’s investment, the person added.

Source: Reuters