According to three persons familiar with the situation, China’s Didi Global (DIDI.N) wants to hire Goldman Sachs (GS.N) for its planned Hong Kong offering and delisting from the New York Stock Exchange after only five months.
Didi, which debuted in New York on June 30 after raising $4.4 billion in an IPO, announced last week that it planned to delist from the New York Stock Exchange and pursue a Hong Kong listing.
Beijing is pressuring the company to leave the New York Stock Exchange after it enraged Chinese officials by proceeding with its IPO despite being urged to postpone it until a review of its data procedures was performed.
According to two individuals, Didi was hoping to hire Goldman to help with the Hong Kong listing before moving forward with the New York delisting. Didi is also in talks with other investment banks, including some Chinese banks, according to a different source. Didi will have to apply for a dual primary listing in Hong Kong, rather than a secondary listing, which needs at least two financial years of satisfactory regulatory compliance on another eligible market, due to the short period since its New York debut.
Goldman did not respond to a request for comment. The sources declined to be identified since they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Along with Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and JPMorgan, Goldman was one of the key underwriters of Didi’s New York IPO (JPM.N).
