According to foreign media sources, Shanghai-based car rental company "eHi Car Rental" is considering returning to the U.S. capital market and may IPO as soon as this year, planning to raise about $300 million.
It is reported that eHi Car Rental is currently in discussions with CICC, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and UBS to submit a listing application in a confidential manner and seek approval from Chinese regulators.
As of now, eHi has not responded to this question.
Founded in January 2006 and headquartered in Shanghai, eHi Car Rental mainly provides comprehensive car travel services for individuals, government and enterprise users, and has opened more than 10,000 service outlets in more than 500 cities across the country, and now has more than 200 models and more than 80,000 rental vehicles, covering the whole country.
In the process of development, the company has also received investment from Ctrip, JAFCO Asia, Qiming Venture Partners and CDH Investments.
On November 19, 2014 (U.S. time), eHi Car Rental was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)** as "EHIC", becoming the first Chinese car rental company to be listed in the U.S., underwritten by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase at that time.
After the listing, eHi Car Rental stepped up the pace of "buying, buying, buying" car purchases. In 2015, eHi completed 1With $3.4 billion and $1.5 billion in strategic financing from other investors, the fleet size reached 2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2015440,000 units.
As an asset-heavy industry, car rental is costly and expensive. The business of CAR and eHi is similar, lacks differentiation, and when the scale is insufficient, the profitability is also limited. After a rapid expansion, the reshuffle of the industry began to accelerate.
In April 2019, eHi's listing finally ended in delisting, led by Zhang Ruiping, then chairman and CEO, and was replaced by Teamport Parent Limited with 9US$3.8 billion ** privatization and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. Now, with the support of a well-known financial institution and the promise of a substantial capital increase, eHi Car Rental may be embarking on a new chapter.