Coupang Founder and CEO Bom Kim, third from left, joined colleagues and NYSE officials to ring the exchange’s opening bell Thursday.
Photo: Courtney Crow/NYSE/Associated Press
Shares of South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang Inc. CPNG 53.69% rose more than 50% Thursday in its New York trading debut.
The Seoul company on Thursday began trading at $59.60, compared with its offering price of $35 a piece. More recently, the stock traded near $53 a share, up 52% from the offering price.
Coupang’s debut is the biggest for a foreign company since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ’s blockbuster 2014 debut. Coupang expects proceeds of $3.5 billion in the offering. Its stock trades under the symbol CPNG on the New York Stock Exchange.
Founded in 2010 and backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., Coupang has become one of the three largest private-sector employers in South Korea. While Amazon.com Inc. and Alibaba have dominated e-commerce in most U.S. and international markets, Coupang has created a rare moat around South Korea, fending off both global giants in its home turf.
—Maureen Farrell contributed to this article.
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