JD Health makes an US$3 billion IPO appointment in Hong Kong for later this year
- The healthcare retail arm of JD.com was last valued at US$12 billion in August
- Online healthcare operators’ shares have soared amid the coronavirus pandemic
JD Health, the healthcare arm of e-commerce giant JD.com, is looking to raise up to US$3 billion via an initial public offering in Hong Kong later this year, according to people familiar with the process.
The Beijing-based online and offline healthcare retail group was last valued at around US$12 billion in August by investors. The company is still a relatively young unicorn, carved out of JD.com only last year.
JD Health is looking to file a listing application to the Hong Kong exchange this month and targeting an IPO as early as December, said two of the people familiar who were not authorised to speak about the transaction as it is not yet public.
JD Health’s IPO has hired investment bankers at Bank of America, China Renaissance, Haitong International and UBS to advise it on the share sale. The banks were not immediately available for comment or declined to comment.
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In China, many patients still buy pharmaceutical products from hospital dispensaries but that is gradually changing as the government encourages the private sector to carry more of the burden. JD Health sells a range of products, such as supplements, medical supplies, contact lenses, across China.
Companies such as Alibaba Health Information Technology, have proven they can reliably deliver drugs to those in need across China during the lockdowns prompted by the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year. Alibaba Health is the largest player in terms of gross merchandise value sold over its platform, according to industry sources.
In August, Alibaba Health raised US$1.3 billion as the largest ever follow-on share sale by a health care company in Hong Kong, surpassing CSPC Pharmaceutical Group’s US$1.26 billion follow-on offering in April 2015, data from Refinitiv shows.
Year-to-date, shares of the flagship health care platform of Alibaba Group has doubled, to HK$18.86, quoted at its close on Thursday. Alibaba Group owns the South China Morning Post.
Apart from selling drugs via its platform, JD Health also operates a telemedicine service that provides remote access to general practitioners. Its JD Family Doctor service allows 24-hour online consultation services using text, photographs, video or voice calls.
Zooming with the family GP became commonplace during the coronavirus pandemic. Consumers signed up in droves to apps linking them with doctors, while investors drove telemedicine companies’ share prices higher in hopes that patient behaviour had changed forever. Ping An Good Doctor’s share price is up 154 per cent since the start of the year.
Government support for these start-ups illustrates a sea-change in Chinese officials’ attitudes vis-à-vis entrusting tech firms with citizens’ well-being and personal data. The world’s most populous nation is funnelling patients towards digital platforms as a way to reduce overcrowding in hospitals, prepare for future pandemics and care for its ageing society.
Social-security coverage of online consultations and prescriptions reinforces patient behaviour and further alleviates pressure on China’s often creaky, paper-based and patchy offline health service.
In August, JD Health raised more than US$830 million from Chinese private equity firm Hillhouse Capital in its Series B preferred share financing.
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