REUTERS: Shares of SoftBank-backed KE Holdings Inc jumped 75per cent in their New York debut on Thursday, after the Chinese online real estate broker raised US$2.12 billion in its initial public offering that was priced above its earlier target range.
Shares of KE, also known as Beike Zhaofang, opened at US$35.06 per American depositary share (ADS), compared to its IPO price of US$20 per ADS.
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The company, which owns property brokerage brand Lianjia and housing transactions platform Beike, said earlier on Thursday it sold 106 million ADSs for US$20 each. (https://bwnews.pr/33TNiLI)
The company had aimed to sell each ADS, representing three class A ordinary shares, at between US$17 and US$19.
Apart from SoftBank Group Corp, KE counts Tencent Holdings Ltd, Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital among its largest investors.
KE's share sale is the largest IPO of a Chinese company since March 2018, when video streaming site iQiyi raised US$2.4 billion from its U.S. listing.
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The IPO comes at a time the U.S. government is threatening to delist Chinese companies that do not meet U.S. accounting standards.
Despite the threat and rising U.S.-China tensions, the allure of a valuation on the world's biggest stock market makes the risk of eventual delisting manageable, while Chinese tech firms find the regulatory burden of a U.SRead More – Source
