China’s Didi Chuxing raising $1.5 billion in debt as it nears blockbuster IPO: Reports

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is said to be raising $1.5 billion in debt financing ahead of a blockbuster U.S. IPO, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

According to a Reuters report, also on Friday, the Softbank-backed company plans to file confidentially later this month for a July listing led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Didi was most recently valued at $62 billion following an August fundraising round, according to PitchBook data. Both Bloomberg and Reuters report that the company could be looking at a $100 billion valuation at the time of its Wall Street debut.

A U.S.-based spokesperson for the company reached by CNBC declined to provide comment.

A Didi IPO could be one of the largest tech IPOs this year and one of the biggest Chinese IPOs in the U.S. since Alibaba listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. The Ant Group IPO, which would have been the biggest in history, was pulled by regulators just days before it was due to begin trading in Shanghai and Hong Kong in November. The suspension of the IPO came shortly after Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, which owns roughly a third of Ant Group, made some comments that appeared critical of China’s financial regulator. Ant Group was also an early investor in Didi.

Last May, Didi president Jean Liu told CNBC that the company’s core ride-hailing business is profitable, and that it has picked up again after the coronavirus outbreak hit China, its home market. Liu did not give specific figures or say which measure of profitability she was referring to.

Didi has been named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 list for the past three consecutive years, most recently ranking No. 30 on last year’s list. Headquartered in Beijing, the company operates in China and eight overseas markets, including Australia and Japan.