Hong Kong’s second biggest IPO of year mints another online shopping boom billionaire
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J&T’s debut is the biggest in the city since ZJLD Group’s US$676 million listing in April.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Hong Kong – Another billionaire has been minted thanks to the online shopping boom that is expanding from China to South-east Asia.
J&T Global Express started trading on Friday in Hong Kong after completing the city’s second-biggest initial public offering of 2023, leaving its founder Li “Jet” Jie with a US$1.5 billion (S$2.05 billion) net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The company’s shares climbed just 0.2 per cent to HK$12.02 in early trade. It closed at HK$12 on Friday.
The courier company, which provides delivery services for online stores like Shein and Pinduoduo, raised US$500 million in the IPO.
Mr Li, who has an 11 per cent stake in J&T, is the latest Chinese billionaire to be created from the online shopping surge of the past two decades, and the first with a fortune that originated in South-east Asia, according to the Bloomberg index.
The online retail frenzy has produced several shopping moguls from China, including Mr Jack Ma of Alibaba Group Holding, China’s largest e-commerce company, who is worth US$28.5 billion.
There is also SF Holding’s Mr Wang Wei, ZTO Express Cayman’s Mr Lai Meisong and Yunda Holding’s Mr Nie Tengyun, who are all billionaires.
Mr Li, 48, started J&T after spending more than 15 years at Chinese smartphone maker Oppo, helping to expand its operations in South-east Asia.
After founding J&T in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2015, the company grew throughout the rest of the region and then into China in 2020.
As at 2022, J&T represented more than 20 per cent of the express delivery industry’s market share in South-east Asia and handled more than three times the package volume of the next biggest player, according to the prospectus.
J&T’s quick expansion attracted a group of big name investors, including Tencent Holding, SF Express, Sequoia Capital and Mr Li’s former employer, Oppo.
J&T’s presence in China has also been growing.
More than half of the company’s US$7.3 billion revenue in 2022 came from business in the country, overtaking South-east Asia as its biggest region, according to the prospectus.
“J&T’s mainland China expansion is eye-catching,” said Essence Securities analyst Wang Ting in a report, “but the low-cost strategy is hard to sustain in mid to long term”.
J&T recorded US$1.5 billion in adjusted losses in 2022 and is profitable only in South-east Asia, according to the prospectus.
The company launched operations in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil and Egypt in 2022, bringing the number of countries it works in to 13.
In 2022, it also named soccer star Lionel Messi as a brand ambassador.
J&T’s debut is the biggest in the city since ZJLD Group’s US$676 million listing in April.
They are the only two companies that raised more than half a billion dollars in Hong Kong since the start of 2023.
J&T’s IPO is poised to give an indication of appetite for new shares in what has been a tough year in the traditionally busy Asian hub.
IPO proceeds in Hong Kong slumped 63 per cent to about US$4.1 billion on the annual comparison, hit by headwinds ranging from high interest rates to economic and geopolitical woes tied to China. BLOOMBERG
