June 22 (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 company, 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.
Backed by high-profile investors such as SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Tencent Holdings, Full Truck Alliance was formed in 2017 out of a merger between Chinese digital freight platforms Yunmanman and Huochebang.
The company runs a mobile app that connects truck drivers to people that need to ship items within China.
It is set to debut on the New York Stock Exchange later on Tuesday and will trade under the ticker symbol “YMM”.
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.
Morgan Stanley, CICC and Goldman Sachs were the lead underwriters for Full Truck Alliance’s offering. (Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)
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