Coupang Inc., the South Korean e-commerce giant, unveiled its filing for a U.S. initial public offering that is expected to be the largest from a foreign company since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ’s blockbuster 2014 debut.
The filing reveals a company growing at a rapid clip and with shrinking losses. It generated $12 billion in revenue in 2020, up from $6.3 billion in 2019, while its loss narrowed to $475 million from $699 million.
The Seoul company had already filed for the listing privately, as companies tend to do now, and it made the paperwork public Friday.
The offering, expected to garner a valuation exceeding $50 billion, could take place as soon as March, according to people familiar with the matter. Alibaba was valued at about $168 billion when it went public.
Should Coupang debut next month, it would enter a red-hot IPO market. So far in 2021, $68 billion worth of stock has been sold on U.S. exchanges, far eclipsing all previous year-to-date totals and what has been raised in many full years, according to data from research firm Dealogic.
