Didi and IPO

China's largest passenger taxi service company Didi has filed paperwork to go public in the US, the BBC reports.

The company is known to have the backing of major Asian technology investment firms, including Softbank (T:9984), Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and Tencent Music Entertainment Group (NYSE:TME), but details of the number of shares being offered and their price were not disclosed.

According to informed sources, Didi could raise around $10bn and be valued at around $100bn, making its IPO the largest initial public offering in the US by a Chinese company since 2014 the record debut of e-commerce giant Alibaba (it raised $25bn).

Didi's business covers the ability to call taxis using a mobile app, along with private cars, whole car fleets and buses in some cities. The company has enlisted the support of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and aims to create a million robot taxis.

The company's interests also encompass the distribution of electric vehicle charging networks, fleet management, vehicle manufacturing and the introduction of autonomous driving. Although Didi operates in 15 countries, China remains its largest market.

The site's financial results were largely affected by the pandemic: Didi's revenues grew slower during the crisis due to the coronavirus, or 9% lower than a year earlier, but it was able to rebound after opening operations in China. And already in the first quarter of 2021, its revenue has more than doubled compared to the same period last year.

Service Didi became the latest Asian tech giant to attempt to attract investment from Wall Street, after Singapore's largest passenger service app Grab struck a $40bn deal earlier this year through a specialist acquisition company (SPAC) to go public in the United States.