Freshippo Declines To Comment on November IPO Rumors

According to reports in the Hong Kong media, Chinese supermarket brand Freshippo, which was launched by e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2015 and is also known as Hema Fresh, is planning to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as early as November. The company is reportedly expediting preparations for its initial public offering, with the actual listing timetable and valuation being dependent on market conditions. However, Freshippo has stated that it has no comments to provide regarding the listing rumors.

In March of this year, Alibaba unveiled its “1+6+N” reform plan, marking a significant milestone for the e-commerce giant. As part of this initiative, the six major business groups under Alibaba have established their respective boards of directors, and both Freshippo and logistics company Cainiao have initiated their plans for listing. On the evening of May 18, Alibaba announced its full-year financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. The report revealed that Alibaba’s board of directors had granted approval to commence the listing process for Freshippo, which was expected to be completed within the subsequent 6–12 months. If all goes as planned, Freshippo will become Alibaba’s first independently listed subsidiary since the introduction of the 1+6+N plan.

The data show that Freshippo achieved significant sales growth of over 25% in 2022 compared with the previous year, accompanied by impressive growth of more than 247% for Freshippo X membership stores. On June 21, the China Chain Store & Franchise Association released its annual ranking of China’s top 100 chain stores for 2022. In a remarkable achievement, Freshippo made its debut in the top 10, securing the sixth position with total sales amounting to 61.00 billion Chinese yuan ($8.51 billion). In other words, each of the 300 Freshippo outlets included in the analysis generated average sales of 203 million yuan ($28.3 million), underscoring the chain’s outstanding performance.

Image: Alibaba

This article was translated from Chinese. Read the original article.