SoBang, 18 Trillion Won Investment Profit from Coupang IPO

(Source: Bloomberg)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Japanese SoftBank is expected to earn investment profits amounting to $16 billion (approximately 18.256 trillion KRW) from Coupang's listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Bloomberg reported on the 9th (local time).

SoftBank holds a 37% stake in Coupang LLC, the parent company of Korean Coupang located in Delaware, USA.

Confident in the success of the IPO, Coupang raised its offering price range from the original $27?30 to $32?34. Based on the top end of the offering price, it is expected to raise up to $4.08 billion, with a post-listing valuation estimated at $58 billion.

With the increase in Coupang's offering price, the investment profits of SoftBank's Chairman Masayoshi Son, who controls Coupang LLC, are also expected to expand.

Chairman Son invested $1 billion through SoftBank in 2015 and an additional $2 billion through the SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF) in 2018, becoming the largest shareholder. After the IPO, SVF will hold 37% of Coupang's Class A shares.

Although Chairman Son previously suffered investment losses from the U.S. office-sharing company WeWork and the UK financial investment firm Greensill Capital, this listing allows him to recover those losses.

Justin Tang, Head of Asia Research at United First Partners in Singapore, said, "Coupang's listing is a major victory for Chairman Son and validates his investment style," adding, "Compared to the profits from Coupang, the losses at Greensill are negligible."

Coupang was founded in 2010 and, besides its core online shopping service, has recently expanded into new businesses such as the food delivery service 'Coupang Eats' and the real-time video streaming service (OTT) 'Coupang Play.'

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.