Chinese Trucking Startup Seeks to Raise Up to $1.6 Billion in U.S. IPO

Full Truck Alliance Co., a Chinese startup that provides an Uber-like service for the road-haulage industry, aims to raise as much as $1.57 billion from its U.S. initial public offering, a filing showed.

The company, also known as Manbang Group, runs a mobile app connecting truck drivers to businesses that need to transport goods within China. It has a number of high-profile investors including Alphabet Inc. and SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund.

This deal and a planned IPO by ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing Technology Co. show Chinese startups are still pursuing U.S. listings, even as the Biden administration has maintained some of former President Donald Trump’s tough stance on businesses from China.

The indicative price range for the share sales implies a market value for Full Truck Alliance of about $18.5 billion to $20.6 billion, whose stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Alongside the IPO, the company is raising another $200 million by privately selling $100 million of stock each to two big investors, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and a unit of Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund.

Full Truck Alliance first made its IPO filing public last month, but at that point didn’t provide any details on size or pricing. At the time, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company sought to raise at least $1 billion at a valuation of between $20 billion and $30 billion.

The startup is selling 82.5 million American depositary shares in the IPO, at a price of $17 to $19, a filing Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed. Units of Invesco Ltd. and Fidelity International have said they are interested in buying up to $500 million and $100 million of stock, respectively.

The final IPO size could increase by 15% if its underwriters exercise a so-called overallotment option. The company plans to price its shares on Monday, according to a term sheet seen by the Journal.

Rising tensions between the U.S. and an increasingly powerful China have led to some concerns they could potentially escalate into armed conflict. But as WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains, there are more forces working against conflict rather than toward it. Photo illustration: Todd Johnson

Last week, Didi filed for a U.S. listing, which people familiar with the matter said could give the ride-hailing company a valuation upward of $70 billion.

Chinese companies have raised $5.9 billion from U.S. IPOs this year, according to Dealogic. The Didi and Full Truck listings are set to push the haul above last year’s full-year total of $13.6 billion.

Earlier this month, President Biden expanded a prohibition on Americans investing in Chinese companies with purported links to China’s military, adding more businesses to a blacklist that has angered Beijing and caused consternation among investors.

—Liza Lin contributed to this article.

Write to Joanne Chiu at [email protected]

This post first appeared on wsj.com