Chinese trucking start-up may seek US$30b in New York listing

A Chinese trucking start-up could file publicly for a U.S. listing this week which could value the company as much as US$30 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter told CNBC.

The Full Truck Alliance connects truck drivers to people who want to ship items, a model that often earns the company the title “Uber for trucks.”

Bloomberg reported in February that the Full Truck Alliance, known as Manbang in Chinese, already filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO) with U.S. regulators.

But the start-up could make its filing public as early as this week and is likely to pick the New York Stock Exchange as its listing venue, the person said.

The Full Truck Alliance could raise around $1.5 billion from the IPO at a valuation of between $20 billion and $30 billion, said the source, who wished to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak publicly.

A representative from the company was not immediately available for comment.

The Full Truck Alliance was formed after a merger between two truck services platforms, Yunmanman and Huochebang, in 2017. It makes money by charging membership fees to those wanting to ship goods and also takes a cut of transactions, much like Uber.

In November, the Full Truck Alliance raised US$1.7 billion from some high profile backers including SoftBank and Tencent.