JD Technology’s IPO Application Terminated by Shanghai Stock Exchange

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The Shanghai bourse has announced the termination of the application for an initial public offering (IPO) made by JD.com’s fintech unit last year.

On 2 April the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) issued an official notice to announce that it was terminating JD Technology’s application for a listing on the STAR Market board due to withdrawal of the application by both the company itself and its listing sponsors.

According to the announcement the sponsors for the listing – Guotai Junan Securities and Wukuang Securities, applied for withdrawal of the IPO application on 30 March, while on the same date JD Technology also applied for withdrawal.

JD Technology originally hoped to raise around 20 billion yuan (approx. USD$3 billion) via a listing on the Shanghai bourse, with the company itself valued at 200 billion yuan.

The SSE commenced its review of JD Technology’s IPO application on 11 September 2020, yet the process saw little progress in the six month period subsequently.

Reports first emerged in early March that JD Technology would withdraw its IPO plans due to concerns about pressure from Chinese regulators, particularly in the wake of the cancellation of Ant Group’s proposed listing on the Hong Kong and Shanghai bourses scheduled for November last year. 

In January JD.com announced that it would merge fintech subsidiary JD Digits with its artificial intelligence and cloud computing units to form JD Technology (京东科技子集团). On 31 March JD.com announced that it had signed a final agreement to complete the transaction, bringing its stake in JD Technology to 42%.