US Also Sees Consecutive Listings of Major IPOs

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] Just as major IPOs are lined up in the domestic stock market for the second half of the year, the U.S. stock market is also seeing a series of major company listings, raising expectations for the IPO market in the latter half of the year.

According to Korea Investment & Securities on the 3rd, major IPOs such as China's largest ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing, cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, and real-time data analytics software company Confluent have recently been listed on the U.S. stock market.

Didi Chuxing, founded in 2012 by Cheng Wei, a former Alibaba employee, is the largest ride-sharing company holding 90% of the Chinese market. Five hundred million people in 15 countries worldwide use Didi Chuxing. Based on an integrated vehicle-sharing platform including taxis, designated drivers, rental cars, minibuses, and bicycles, it operates vehicle-hailing services and food delivery businesses. In Q1 2021, revenue increased by 106% year-on-year to 42.2 billion yuan (approximately 7.3934 trillion KRW), and net profit turned positive at 5.5 billion yuan.

Didi Chuxing filed for listing on the 10th of last month, aiming to raise a total of 10 billion USD (approximately 11.349 trillion KRW), but later priced its IPO at 14 USD per share, raising 4.4 billion USD. Didi Chuxing became the Chinese company that raised the most funds through a U.S. IPO since Alibaba raised 25 billion USD in its 2014 listing. On the 30th of last month (local time), it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange, starting trading with a 19% increase over the IPO price but closed with a gain of just over 1%. Although the increase was modest, it was seen as breaking away from the recent trend of other Chinese companies performing poorly during their IPOs in recent weeks.

SentinelOne is an endpoint security company that detects threats occurring on devices such as PCs and servers and provides response solutions. Using artificial intelligence (AI), it learns various types of malware to block hacking attempts and analyzes intrusion paths upon detection to prevent further damage. In Q1 of fiscal year 2021 (February to April), revenue increased by 108.2% year-on-year to 37.4 million USD, annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew by 115.5% to 160 million USD, and the number of customers with annual contracts over 100,000 USD rose by 127% to 277. SentinelOne, which was listed on the 30th of last month, closed its first trading day at 42.5 USD, up 21.43% from the IPO price, pushing its market capitalization over 10 billion USD.

Confluent is a SaaS (Software as a Service) unicorn company founded by a team that developed the open-source cloud software 'Apache Kafka' at LinkedIn, a business networking company. Its main service analyzes, monitors, and provides solutions for large volumes of real-time data on an open-source cloud-based platform. Major clients include Netflix, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America (BoA), Lyft, Audi, and Walmart. In Q1 2021, the number of clients reached 2,500, an increase of 1,500 compared to the same period last year. Additionally, Q1 revenue rose 51.3% year-on-year to 77 million USD, remaining performance obligations (RPO) increased by 68.9% to 280 million USD, and the number of customers with annual contracts over 100,000 USD grew by 50% to 561, demonstrating high growth. Confluent was listed on Nasdaq on the 24th of last month. The IPO price was set at 36 USD per share, higher than the expected range of 29 to 33 USD, and surged 25% on the first day of trading. Its market capitalization exceeded 11 billion USD.