The $50 billion goal valuation that Reuters reported this month would possible see the decade-old agency surpass not too long ago listed U.S. meals deliverer DoorDash Inc on a roster of belongings that additionally contains stakes in TikTok father or mother ByteDance and ride-hailers Seize and Didi.
The Imaginative and prescient Fund constructed up its 37% stake in Coupang for $2.7 billion, largely at an $8.7 billion post-money valuation, an individual accustomed to the matter mentioned. The fund isn’t anticipated to promote shares within the preliminary public providing (IPO) that Coupang filed for in New York, the individual mentioned, declining to be recognized as the data was not public.
SoftBank Group Corp and Coupang declined to remark.
Reaching a $50 billion valuation would add to excellent news for the fund which is bouncing again from an annual loss in March. This month, it introduced document quarterly revenue, pushed by the listings of DoorDash and residential vendor Opendoor Applied sciences Inc and share value rise of ride-hailer Uber Applied sciences Inc.
HIT PARADE
The fund has written large cheques for late-stage startups to gas speedy development, with two-thirds of the worth of its portfolio concentrated in 10 belongings together with Coupang.
The ten embrace 25% of British chip designer Arm – to be bought to Nvidia Corp pending regulatory approval – however not stakes in high-profile stumbles like office-sharing agency WeWork.
The fund’s largest belongings embrace its 22% stake in DoorDash, whose share value has doubled because the agency’s December IPO, sending its market capitalisation to $65 billion.
FACTBOX: Imaginative and prescient Fund’s funding hit parade
SoftBank initially invested in Coupang in 2015, including it to a secure of e-commerce hits that included 25% of China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, earlier than inserting it underneath the fund.
The e-tailer has grown quickly throughout stay-home insurance policies whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has pressured different portfolio companies like Indian resort chain Oyo to scramble to protect money.
Analysts see Coupang’s $50 billion valuation as possible given its first-mover standing and because it expands past changing brick-and-mortar retail with a rising variety of on-line channels.
It’s the greatest e-tailer in South Korea that straight handles stock, with 2020 purchases at about 21.7 trillion gained ($19.62 billion), confirmed knowledge from WiseApp.
“The market’s evaluation is not exaggerated,” mentioned analyst Park Eun-kyung at Samsung Securities. “Coupang’s market management is a premium issue.”