WeWork's Chinese rival Ucommune has announced plans to move ahead with its public listing in the United States. China's leading shared workspace provider reportedly filed for its initial public offering (IPO) late last week, to raise to $100 million in new capital in the US stock market.
Ucommune reportedly filed for an IPO with the New York Stock Exchange last week. According to its prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company will be listed on the New York exchange under the ticker symbol "UK."
China Renaissance and Haitong International will be standing as joint book-runners for Ucommune's IPO in the United States. Citigroup and Credit Suisse Group AG, which were both listed in earlier filings, had dropped out of the US IPO of the Chinese firm.
Apart from announcing its listing and its fundraising target, no other IPO details were revealed. The company is however expected to make a formal announcement in the coming weeks to revealed details such as its official IPO pricing and its listing date.
The Chinese firm will be joining an increasing number of Chinese startups that have chosen to list on US exchanges in recent years. This had resulted in the establishment of the S&P US Listed China 50 index. The index tracks the performance of the 50 largest Chinese companies listed in the country based on total market capitalization. As of last week, the index stood at 3,063. 65 points, a significant 33.71 percent year-to-date returns gain.
Ucommune was originally founded in 2015 in Beijing. The company markets itself as the largest co-working space community in China with plans for further expansion in the coming years. Ucommune currently has the largest number of co-working spaces and aggregate managed areas in the country, spread over major Chinese cities and urban areas.
Similar to other shared workspace providers such as WeWork, Ucommune offers office spaces that companies and individuals can rent and share. This essentially created a unique working environment that significantly cuts operating costs. Ucommune was one of the first companies that had taken advantage of China's rapid urbanization and the consequent increase in demand for flexible and innovative working spaces in highly urbanized areas.
According to industry experts, China's co-working space market is rapidly growing and expanding, offering significant opportunities for startups and veteran players who can adapt to the evolving market. China's shared workspace industry, including service and rental revenues, had surged from just $170 million in 2013 to over $2.48 billion in 2018. The industry is expected to balloon to over $18.84 billion by 2023.
