South Korean eCommerce Site Coupang Aims For $58 Billion Valuation

eCommerce

Korean eCommerce platform Coupang is looking to up its initial public offering (IPO) price, hoping to hit a valuation of $58 billion, Reuters reported on Tuesday (March 9). 

The SoftBank-backed startup’s public debut on the U.S. stock market could be the biggest IPO in New York by a foreign company since China’s Alibaba went public in 2014, the news outlet noted.

A competitor to Amazon, Coupang notched $3 billion in combined funding from SoftBank and its Vision Fund. In a regulatory filing, Coupang said it would price shares from $32 to $34 each. That is higher than the company’s previous range of $27 to $30. The firm could raise as much as $4.08 billion at the high end of its new range, per Reuters. 

Coupang — set to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CPNG” — has posted an increase in revenue every quarter for the past three years amid a narrowing loss. Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and HSBC are said to be the underwriters for the offering.

Based in Seoul, the eCommerce firm was founded in 2010 by Harvard graduate Suk Kim. The startup got attention with its 24-hour “Rocket Delivery,” which challenged Shinsegae and Lotte, among several family-owned retail conglomerates.

The company’s S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Coupang —  37 percent owned by SoftBank — comes at a time when indices hit record highs. Coupang has been mulling a listing for at least 11 years.

Coupang said earlier this month that it was looking to raise $3.6 billion with a New York public filing.