EUR 88.18 For Business Accounts Only

Coupang IPO

Coupang, one of the largest product e-commerce players in Korea, aims to raise up to US$3.6bn in its US listing via a mix of selling primary and secondary shares. In this note, we’ll talk about the lock-up, index inclusion and run the deal through our framework.

Coupang offers its 14.8m customers a wide range of owned-inventory selection. In addition, it also offers millions of SKUs sourced from over 200,000 merchants on its marketplace. Apart from normal e-commerce operation, it also provides its customers with: grocery offering, Rocket Fresh; logistics food delivery offering, Coupang Eats; and digital financial services, Coupang Pay.

Coupang’s revenue grew by 2.9x over FY18-20, with bulk of that growth coming in FY20 when revenue grew by 91% YoY. Over the same timeframe, gross profit expanded by 10.5x, and the company managed to narrow down its operating and net losses and turn operating cash flow positive. However, Coupang has not been very forthcoming with its operational data. Given its rapid growth it might not have too much room left for adding new customers.

We have covered the deal background in our earlier notes, Coupang Pre-IPO - Fast Growth, sticky customers but horrendous data disclosures, including no mention of OTT launch, Coupang Pre-IPO - Fair bit of competition but it's doing better than most local peers and Coupang Pre-IPO - Earnings forecast and valuation.