A deliveryman for Dada-JD Daojia drops groceries into a plastic bag as he arrives at a residential compound in Beijing on Feb. 8, 2020.TINGSHU WANG/Reuters
Chinese online grocery firm Dada Nexus Ltd said on Monday it aims to raise up to $280.5 million in an initial public offering (IPO) that could value the company at over $3.72 billion.
The company, which plans to list on Nasdaq under the symbol “DADA,” set a price range of $15 to $17 per American Depository Share (ADS) for its offering of 16.5 million ADS.
The company’s IPO plan comes amid tighter restrictions from U.S. lawmakers and stock exchange operators on flotations by Chinese companies going public in the U.S., in an effort to improve auditing standards and accounting transparency.
Dada said e-commerce major JD.Com and retail giant Walmart Inc – both of whom invested a combined $500 million in the grocery firm in 2018 – have expressed interest in subscribing up to $60 million and $30 million worth of its ADS, respectively.
Dada operates JD-Daojia, a local on-demand retail platform that caters to 27.6 million active consumers and Dada Now, a local on-demand delivery platform whose intracity service currently covers 700 cities and counties in China.
The company said it intends to use about 40% of the proceeds from the offering to implement marketing initiatives and grow its user base.
Dada’s net loss available to ordinary shareholders last year widened to 2.46 billion yuan ($344.73 million) from 2.39 billion yuan in 2018.
Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities and Jefferies are the lead underwriters to Dada’s offering.
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