SoftBank-backed Coupang made a strong start on Wall Street, ending its first trading day with a market value of more than $84bn in the largest US debut for an international company since Alibaba’s listing in 2014.
The South Korean ecommerce giant closed trading at $49.25 per share on Thursday, a 40.7 per cent rise from the $35 that shares were priced at during an initial public offering on Wednesday. Coupang raised $3.5bn from selling new shares in the offering.
Shares in Coupang had opened at $63.50 per share on Thursday, an 81.4 per cent rise from the initial price, and rose as high as $69, which briefly gave it a market capitalisation of $118.3bn, based on the number of shares it had outstanding.