China’s Didi Closes First Day At $14.20 After Opening Above $16

Didi Global, a Chinese ridesharing firm, started trading at $16.65 per share on Wednesday (June 30) in its introduction to the markets. Didi had priced its shares at $14, CNBC reported.

Didi is trading under the “DIDI” ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Shares of Didi were changing hands at $14.20 at the market close Wednesday (June 30).

As PYMNTS reported earlier in June, Didi filed its F-1 under Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc., its official name, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public in the U.S. with American depositary shares.

According to the filing, the firm had 493 million annual active users through the trailing 12 months that wrapped up in March, with 15 million annual active drivers and 41 million average daily transactions during that same timeframe.

In the F-1, management wrote that “the new mobility paradigm is expected to significantly increase the already massive mobility market opportunity.” As per the filing, mobility represents a $6.7 trillion opportunity.

“We believe China is the best starting place for realizing our vision for mobility,” Didi said in the filing. “China’s massive and urbanizing population presents opportunities for new mobility services. This will accelerate the rapid development of shared mobility and transform urban living.”

Didi brought in 141.7 billion Chinese yuan (about $21.9 billion) in sales for all of 2020, down 8.5 percent from the past year. As PYMNTS previously noted, the drop is not unexpected in the wake of the pandemic.

For 2020, Didi said it lost 13.7 billion yuan (about $2.1 billion).

Didi’s public debut comes as Dingdong Maicai and MissFresh, two Chinese supermarket delivery upstarts, have filed to go public in the United States.

Yet, in China, the approach to large tech firms leans more and more toward regulation. To that end, new legislation will make most data-related operations in China subject to government oversight.