(Reuters) – China’s Full Truck Alliance Co Ltd raised nearly $1.6 billion through a U.S. initial public offering on Tuesday, giving it a valuation of around $20.6 billion and marking another high-profile Chinese float in New York this year.
The trucking startup, which styles itself as the “Uber for trucks,” sold 82.5 million American depositary shares (ADS) at $19 per ADS, the upper end of its target range of $17 and $19 per ADS. Each ADS represents 20 Class A ordinary shares.
It will also raise a total of $200 million from Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board by selling Class A ordinary shares.
Backed by high-profile investors such as SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Tencent Holdings, the company runs a mobile app that connects truck drivers to people that need to ship items within China.
Full Truck Alliance, or FTA, was formed in 2017 out of a merger between Chinese digital freight platforms Yunmanman and Huochebang. It is led by Peter Zhang, a former executive of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
Several richly valued Chinese tech startups have targeted IPOs in the United States in recent years, as they can tap into the deepest capital pool in the world and avoid tighter regulatory scrutiny in major Asian exchanges such as Hong Kong.
Didi Chuxing, China’s biggest ride-hailing firm, is set to go public in the United States later this year in what is expected to be this year’s largest IPO.
FTA will…
