New York instead of Hong Kong and an assessment of $ 100 billion. What will be the IPO taxi service DIDI

The Chinese taxi aggregator DIDI changed his mind to conduct an IPO in Hong Kong-Listing will be held in New York, as was originally planned, reports Reuters with reference to sources. The company counts on an assessment of at least $ 100 billion, which is almost twice as many previous forecasts. We tell you why DIDI changed the solution how the service develops in Russia and how it differs from other taxi aggregators.

Why New York?

According to Reuters, the DIDI taxi aggregator, which is called the Chinese Uber, still decided to choose a New York instead of Hong Kong for his IPO. The company initially planned to reach the US exchange in the United States, but changed my mind last fall, giving preference to Hong Kong. The reason was an increase in tension in the relationship between Beijing and Washington. After the change of US President, DIDI, apparently, decided to return to the original plans.

Reuters sources call two more reasons. Firstly, in New York more predictable than in Hong Kong. Secondly, the company is afraid of a more thorough check by the Hong Kong regulators in case the IPO passes there. Shanghai authorities fined the DIDI for the use of unlicensed vehicles and called on the company to pay more attention to passengers.

One of the Reuters sources, close to DIDI, noted that the company considers the possibility of entering the exchange in Hong Kong, but after accommodation in the United States.

The press service of DIDI said that the company has not yet a final decision on the place of IPO. The representative of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange refused to comment.

How much will the DIDI evaluate?

According to Reuters interlocutors, the Chinese aggregator calculates during the placement for an assessment of at least $ 100 billion. DIDI discussed the possibility of listing through Spac, the agency’s sources said. But this option was recognized as non -viable, taking into account the volume of placement.

Reuters previously reported that IPO is expected in the first half of 2021. At this point, the company can be estimated at more than $ 60 billion, one of the agency’s sources said.

Later, Bloomberg interlocutors reported that DIDI accelerated preparations for IPO and plans to go to the exchange in April. According to the agency, the aggregator crossed the deadlines thanks to a good conjuncture. SoftBank, the largest investor DIDI, aims at an IPO rating above $ 62 billion, Bloomberg wrote. Based on the usual parameters of the Chinese mega-ipo, 15% of the shares will be applied. Even with an estimate of $ 62 billion, the DIDI can attract about $ 9 billion, and its placement will become one of the largest IPO in the IT sector in 2021.

DIDI is owned by the Chinese company DIDI Chuxing, created by Alibaba Group in 2012. In addition to SoftBank, among investors such technological giants as Apple, Alibaba and Tencent. And Uber, who sold the Chinese business in 2016, has 17.5% of the company.

How does DIDI develop in Russia?

The first city where the Chinese Uber earned was Kazan in August 2020. For two months of work there, DIDI became the second largest service by order of trips. The next six months, the service appeared in Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir, Izhevsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Kursk, Lipetsk, Naberezhnye Chelny, Orenburg, Penza, Ryazan, Tambov, Tver, Tula and Cheboksary. In the capitals-Moscow and St. Petersburg-he does not intend to start yet.

By the end of this year, DIDI plans to expand its geography to hundreds of Russian cities. The aggregator has already begun a set of drivers and the search for taxi pork in Voronezh, Ufa, Krasnoyarsk, Perm and Krasnodar.

In addition to native China and Russia, DIDI is represented in 13 countries, mainly in Latin America. In 2019, the company had more than 30 million drivers and 550 million users. In China, DIDI is represented in more than 400 cities, where 450 million passengers are regularly launched.

How is DIDI different from competitors?

“Chinese uber” works on the same principle as all other taxi aggregators. There are differences only in a number of functions of the DIDI Taxi application, Izvestia said . For example, the service provides the opportunity to hide telephone numbers, add the contacts of proxies for emergency communication, share a trip with friends and family, who can monitor real -time movement, cancel the driver/passenger selected by the system.

Also in the DIDI application there is a SOS button for passengers and drivers, which allows you to contact law enforcement agencies in an emergency and transfer information about the trip and the current location of trusted contact persons.

The company itself considers an innovative approach to work, including work with great data. “Every day, the DIDI processes more than 106 TB information about the routes of vehicles connected to the system, more than 40 billion travel requests. This is also the application of artificial intelligence in routing, including the prediction of demand in different parts of each city during the day and the use of smart dispatching algorithms, machine training, cloudy calculations, ”said Irina Gushchina PR director in Russia.

The DIDI drives commission is 9.5%, which on average corresponds to the market. As of August last year, the commission was about 10%in Yandex.Taxi, in Citimobile - 8–9%, in Gett - about 6%.

Photo on the cover of the material: DIDI