China’s largest delivery company S.F. Express is planning its IPO in China’s domestic stock market, and is getting advice from Chinese securities firms including CITIC Securities, China Merchants Securities and Huatai United Securities, NetEase Tech reported on Tuesday.
The company has yet to confirm the details.
Industrial analyst said that S.F. Express’ IPO plan is to secure its position in the Chinese market as its major rivals including STO Express and YTO Express have already listed or are in the process of doing so.
S.F. Express also needs more capital to grow in high-cost businesses like airlines and cold chain logistics, Yang Daqing, a researcher from the China Society of Logistics told Southern Metropolis Daily, a newspaper in China.
STO Express was the first to become China’s first listed express delivery company last December, while Alibaba-backed YTO Express announced plans for a Main Board listing in January. ZTO Express, another large delivery company in China, is planning its IPO in the US later this year or in early 2017, which could be the biggest U.S. listing by a Chinese company since Alibaba’s IPO, the Wall Street Journal reported last Friday.
China’s logistics industry has grown quickly in recent years. Parcel deliveries in China reached 20 billion, the highest consignment volume in the world in 2015. A report by China’s State Council shows that China will deliver 50 billion packages in 2020, and the revenue of its logistics industry will reach RMB 800 billion by then.
S.F. Express businesses cover parcel delivery, e-commerce, and finance. It had about 310,000 employees, 15,000 vehicles, 20 aircrafts and 12,260 service centers across the world as of last September.