Coupang to go public

Korean e-commerce giant Coupang is set to go public. The company, which launched in Seoul in 2010, has been dreaming of listing on the Nasdaq for quite some time. The Korea Times reported that this could happen within the first half of 2021.

Coupang is essentially a giant online department store where it’s possible to buy everything from sneakers to food. If you name it, they probably have it. It is Korea’s top e-commerce play, and like many e-commerce giants, such as Amazon, coronavirus actually helped their bottom line. Sales skyrocketed during the pandemic and the company saw an 18.1 percent increase year-on-year as reported by Nielson Korea.

Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s most notable investment banking companies, is the underwriter for Coupang. The firm is currently marketing Coupang to potential investors around the globe. A listing time could come circa March.

Coupang’s parent company, Coupang LLC, the e-commerce company’s U.S.-registered corporations, owns 100 percent of Coupang shares. SoftBan’s Vision Fund holds a 37 percent stake in Coupang.

Although Coupang has been seeing revenue growth year-over-year, the company has also been seeing a series of losses. In 2018, the company saw a 900 million dollars loss, followed by a 634 million dollars loss in 2019. The IPO plan is seen as a way of Coupang raising enough capital to sustain their business, but they will also have to prove to investors how they plan on turning a profit.

photo: via coupang.com