South Korea’s Coupang Files $4.6 Billion US IPO

South Korea’s Coupang filed an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. raising $4.6 billion, the largest share offering this year and above its initial price range, Reuters reported on Thursday (March 11),

Coupang priced the 130 million IPO shares at $35 each, topping the original $32-$34 per share price. South Korea’s biggest eCommerce platform now has a valuation of $60 billion. The company’s valuation was estimated at $9 billion in a fundraising round in 2018, according to Pitchbook, per Reuters.  

Backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group and headquartered in Seoul, Coupang began trading shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Thursday under the ticker CPNG. Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup are the lead underwriters.

“Considering the high level of valuation inherent in the pricing, the market is giving a generous assessment of the company’s achieving the top spot in market share,” Park Sang-joon, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, told Reuters.

Coupang has 19.2 percent of the eCommerce market in South Korea, according to Euromonitor, per Reuters. Rival Naver has a 13.6 market share, and eBay Korea has 12.8 percent. Coupang is ranked the 10th largest eCommerce company worldwide based on retail value, excluding sales tax.

Coupang’s net sales surged 91 percent year-on-year in 2020, reaching $11 billion. Net losses dropped to $567.6 million from $770.2 million posted in 2019.

Prior to Coupang’s filing, the dating app Bumble was the largest U.S. IPO in 2021, raising $2.15 billion. 

Founded in 2010 by Korean-American billionaire Bom Suk Kim, Coupang gained more business when it started offering guaranteed same-day or next-day delivery on food, general merchandise, and household and other essentials. SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund has a 35.1 percent stake in the company.

Earlier this week, Coupang was hoping to raise enough to up its valuation to $58 billion. Coupang’s IPO is the biggest public fling in New York by a foreign company since China’s Alibaba went public in 2014.