Chinese used car platform files for Nasdaq public offering

Chinese used car e-commerce platform Uxin has filed for a US$500 million initial public offering on Nasdaq, according to a statement published by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday night.

Founded in 2011, the Beijing-based company is one of the top three online platforms in China’s used car market, offering both B2B and B2C services to facilitate sales of used cars to both dealers and consumers. 

It also provides services ranging from auto financing, logistics, insurance, vehicle inspection, warranties and other value-added services.

The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol UXIN. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs (Asia), J.P. Morgan, China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Limited and China Renaissance Securities (Hong Kong) Limited are acting as joint book-running managers of this offering.

Uxin is one of the three largest used-car trading sites in China, along with other e-commerce platforms including Renrenche and Guazi.com. 

A total of 634,317 used cars were sold through Uxin's platform last year, an increase of 67.9 percent year on year, according to the company.

Uxin saw its revenue jump to 649.4 million yuan (US$103.3 million) in the first quarter this year, up 93.2 percent from the same period in 2017. The company said it generates revenue primarily through fees for transaction facilitation and auto loan facilitation services.

The company made a net loss of 839.4 million yuan (US$133.5 million) in the first three months of this year, up 64.3 percent from the same period in 2017.

The company also said it expects China's used car market will further grow in the coming years. The company described China in the statement as "a massive and high-growth online used car market."

According to data from consulting firm iResearch, China's used car transaction volume is expected to grow rapidly from 12.4 million in 2017 to reach 29.6 million vehicles by 2022. The growth of the used car market is driven by a number of factors including continued urbanization, increasing disposable income and increasing consumer acceptance of used cars.

"There is also significant room for continued growth of used car transactions through online platforms," Uxin said.