Courier company J&T Express is planning to file for its Hong Kong initial public offering as soon as in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Jakarta-based firm is weighing raising $500 million to $1 billion in the share sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. A listing could happen as soon as this year, although no final decision has been made and details including size and timeline could still change, the people said.
A representative for J&T Express declined to comment.
J&T Express would be joining its rivals — SF Holding Co. and Cainiao Network Technology Co., the logistics unit of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. — in planning to tap the Hong Kong’s equity capital markets for funding. The city hasn’t seen any $1 billion-plus IPOs since CALB Group Co.’s $1.3 billion listing in October. Companies have raised only $2.2 billion through first-time share sales in the financial hub so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Founded in 2015 by entrepreneurs Jet Lee and Tony Chen, J&T Express has operations in Southeast Asia, China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Brazil and Egypt, according to the company’s website. The courier has more than 400,000 service staff globally. In China, J&T is known for its aggressive pricing and expansion, challenging rivals like SF Holding and Alibaba-backed YTO Express Group Co. J&T’s backers include Hillhouse Capital, Boyu Capital, Sequoia Capital China and Temasek Holdings Pte.
J&T Express has been working with Bank of America Corp., China International Capital Corp. and Morgan Stanley on the potential first-time share sale, Bloomberg News reported in 2021. The company initially considered seeking a US listing but later switched the venue to Hong Kong as Chinese regulators stepped up scrutiny on its companies listing overseas, people familiar with the matter had said. Even though J&T is Indonesian, several of its investors are based in China and the logistics firm has significant operations there, which prompted concern within the company about potential scrutiny from Beijing, one of the people had said.