(Yicai Global) June 30 -- Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing platform, raised at least USD4 billion from its initial public offering in New York yesterday after pricing the shares at the top end of the marketed range, the Paper reported.

Didi priced the 288 million American depositary shares offered at USD14 each, valuing the Beijing-based firm at USD67.1 billion, the report said. If the greenshoe option is used, Didi could raise as much as USD4.6 billion for a USD67.7 billion market value, it added.

Since filing its IPO prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on June 11, Didi has been 10 times oversubscribed, fulfilling its targeted USD4 billion fundraising target ahead of schedule and closing subscriptions early, the Paper said.

The size of the deal may have been even bigger, as two unidentified sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Didi sold 317 million ADS.

Didi became the dominant player in China’s ride-hailing market after driving out Uber in 2016. Uber China was subsumed into Didi, with Uber receiving an interest in the Chinese firm in return. Its IPO has been long awaited and is expected to be one of the world’s biggest this year.

Last year, the coronavirus pandemic upended travel, adding to the red ink at Didi. The company posted a net loss of CNY10.6 billion (USD1.6 billion) in 2020, almost a billion more than in 2019. Revenue fell 8.5 percent to CNY141.7 billion (USD22 billion).

But in the first quarter of this year, Didi swung into the black for the first time, making a net profit of CNY5.5 billion, while revenue jumped 106 percent to CNY42.2 billion.

After the IPO, SoftBank Vision Fund will own 20.2 percent of Didi, Uber 12 percent, and Tencent Holdings 6.4 percent. Didi founder Cheng Wei and President Liu Qing will hold 6.5 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, controlling 35.5 percent and 22.8 percent of the voting rights

Thirty percent of the IPO proceeds will be used to expand Didi’s business outside of China, according to the IPO prospectus. Another 30 percent will go to technology upgrades in ride-hailing, electric vehicles and autonomous driving.

A fifth of the funds will be spent on developing new products and improving existing ones to provide consumers with better services. The rest will be for working capital and potential strategic investments.

Didi Global will debut on the New Stock Exchange under the ticker NYSE:DIDI.

Editor: Futura Costaglione