Courier company J&T Global Express Ltd. has received approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange for an initial public offering that could raise about $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company may start gauging investor interest as early as next week, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. J&T Global filed pre-listing documents with the exchange in June. A listing could happen as early as the end of October, Bloomberg News reported last week.
Deliberations are ongoing and the IPO details are subject to change, the people said. An external representative for J&T Global declined to comment.
At $500 million, J&T Global’s IPO would be the biggest in Hong Kong since ZJLD Group Inc.’s $676 million listing in April, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. J&T Global would also be the first among the Chinese couriers to test the city’s appetite for new stocks as companies have only raised $2.9 billion through first-time share sales so far this year. Cainiao Smart Logistics Network Ltd., the logistics arm of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and SF Holding Co. have filed for Hong Kong listings earlier on.
Founded in 2015 in Indonesia, J&T Global operates express delivery services in 13 countries including most of Southeast Asia as well as China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Brazil and Egypt, according to its prospectus. The courier has more than 400,000 service staff globally.
In China, J&T Global is known for its aggressive pricing and expansion, challenging rivals like SF Holding Co. and Alibaba-backed YTO Express Group Co. China accounted for more than half of J&T Global’s revenue in 2022, the Hong Kong filing shows. Its backers include Hillhouse Capital, Boyu Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Temasek Holdings Pte, Tencent Holdings Ltd. and SF Holding.
Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp. and China International Capital Corp. are arranging the IPO for J&T Global.
(Updates J&T Global’s comment in third paragraph.)
