DM Monitoring
New York: Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global has ended its first day on the New York Stock Exchange with a valuation of $68.49bn (£49.6bn).
That is even as its shares closed just 1% higher than their $14 offering price after slipping back from earlier strong gains.
It was the biggest listing in the US by a Chinese company since Alibaba’s debut in 2014.
China’s answer to Uber raised $4.4bn in the Initial Public Offering (IPO).
It is the latest in a series of Chinese companies to cash in on the booming US stock market.
n the first six months of the year, some 29 Chinese companies raised a total of $7.6bn in IPOs, according to financial markets data provider Refinitiv.
This is despite years of tensions between Washington and Beijing, and concerns raised by US regulators over some Chinese firms’ financial reports.
Didi had originally hoped for a valuation of as much as $100bn, according to a Reuters report in March.
Those expectations were said to have been scaled back after potential investors voiced concerns about the speed and profitability of the firm’s expansion plans.
Didi, like the majority of ride-hailing platforms, had been loss-making until it reported a $30m profit for the first three months of this year.
