Stanley Druckenmiller (L), and Invoice AckmanCNBCSouth Korean e-commerce big Coupang, which soared in its Wall Avenue debut, bought early backing f
Stanley Druckenmiller (L), and Invoice Ackman
CNBC
South Korean e-commerce big Coupang, which soared in its Wall Avenue debut, bought early backing from a pair high-profile traders: Stanley Druckenmiller and Invoice Ackman.
Coupang, dubbed the Amazon of South Korea, almost doubled from its preliminary public providing value of $35 per share shortly after Thursday’s noon open on the New York Inventory Trade.
The inventory later pared these good points and closed up nearly 41% at $49.25 per share, giving Coupang a market capitalization of $84.5 billion.
Druckenmiller, the billionaire CEO of the Duquesne Household Workplace, has been a longtime, pre-IPO investor within the Seoul-based firm, Kevin Warsh, an advisor to Druckenmiller, instructed CNBC’s Becky Fast. Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor, joined the board of Coupang in 2019. Warsh owns a complete 280,662 shares of Coupang, based on a submitting with the Securities and Trade Fee.
Ackman, the billionaire who runs the Pershing Sq. Capital Administration hedge fund, invested personally in Coupang, a supply near the state of affairs instructed CNBC. It is unclear when that funding was made. However a Reuters report in 2014 mentions Ackman as an investor.
Coupang raised $4.6 billion in its IPO, the biggest one within the U.S. to this point this 12 months. The corporate offered 130 million shares at $35 apiece Wednesday night, above its goal vary of $32 to $34.
The corporate was based in 2010 by Bom Kim, who continues to function CEO. Different traders embrace Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group.
“Once we discuss Coupang, what it’s, it’s Amazon however it’s Amazon with a UPS hooked up to it, with DoorDash, with Instacart, with somewhat sprint of Netflix and that’s all built-in on this expertise platform with an excessive diploma of buyer centricity,” mentioned Lydia Jett, an funding associate at SoftBank’s Imaginative and prescient Fund and a member of Coupang’s board since 2018.
SoftBank’s Imaginative and prescient Fund owns a couple of third of Coupang, having invested billions of {dollars} into the corporate. In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley,” Jett mentioned it did not take lengthy to appreciate Kim is a top-notch founder worthy of backing.
“Once I met Bom and spent three days in Seoul with him, I used to be blown away by the extent of buyer understanding and the client centricity of his firm, the innovation that was going down,” Jett mentioned. “It was clear to me that this firm was doing one thing radically totally different from its competitors and the purchasers have been responding,” she added. “You possibly can see that within the numbers of the corporate.”
Coupang’s complete income was $12 billion in 2020, up almost 91% from the earlier 12 months. It registered an working lack of $527.7 million in 2020 — down 18% from 2019 and down almost 50% from 2018.
The corporate was ranked No. 2 on the CNBC Disruptor 50 record final 12 months.