SEOUL, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang has filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.
In the IPO documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, the Seoul-based company said it will sell Class A common stocks on the New York market, without disclosing details.
If Coupang successfully has its stocks listed in the United States, it would mark the biggest IPO for a foreign company since Alibaba's debut in 2014. Back then, the Chinese entity was valued at some $168 billion.
Korea's SK Investment & Securities expected that Coupang's value would be higher than $50 billion considering its fast growth. HMC Investment & Securities estimated its worth at $35 billion.
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In the IPO plan, Coupang said its 2020 revenue almost doubled to $12 billion from a year before, while its net loss decreased from $699 million to $475 million during the period.
Analysts said Coupang opted for the NYSE instead of the Korean bourse to strengthen its leaders' grip on the online retailer.
"Coupang appears to go for the New York Stock Exchange because it can take advantage of a multi-class share structure, which is not possible in Korea," HMC Investment & Securities analyst Kim Hyun-yong told UPI News Korea.
Coupang's listing is expected to take place in March, he said.
According to the IPO plan, Coupang founder Bom Kim will have a class of stock with 29 votes per share. Other investors in the IPO will get just one vote per share.
Hana Financial Investment analyst Park Jong-dae said, "Even if CEO Bom Kim holds just 2 percent of Coupang shares after the IPO, he will be able to control up to 58 percent of the voting rights at the shareholders' meeting."
Established in 2010, Harvard dropout Bom Kim has chalked up an ultra-fast growth of the company, a strategy that has brought losses amounting to some $4 billion.
But investors recognized its growth potential as demonstrated by SoftBank's Vision Fund, which channeled around $3 billion into the cash-burning start-up.
