
PE-backed China Auto Rental files for Hong Kong IPO
China Auto Rental, a car hire firm backed by Warburg Pincus, has revived IPO plans that were shelved in mid-2012, although it is now aiming to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rather than NASDAQ.
The company has made a regulatory filing but it has yet to disclose details as to the size and timing of the offering, or the composition of new and existing shares.
Warburg Pincus invested $200 million in China Auto Rental in 2012 and has a 23.1% stake in the business. The following year Hertz bought $100 million worth of shares from existing shareholders and was issued with two notes, of $100 million and $36 million, respectively, that converts into equity. A conversion was completed last month. It currently has a 19% interest.
China Auto Rental received RMB14.5 million ($2.3 million) from Legend Capital in 2010 and the following year Legend Holdings, the VC firm's parent group, made a strategic investment of approximately RMB207.8 million. Legend holds a 20% non-controlling interest in China Auto Rental's majority shareholder Grand Union Management.
Legend Capital is understood to have exited its position when the company underwent a corporate restructuring in 2011 ahead of the planned US IPO. China Auto Rental originally sought to raise $300 million but scaled it back to $138 million before pulling the offering completely in response to poor investor sentiment.
The company remains China's leading car rental company with a fleet of 55,403 vehicles as of March 2014. Its fleet is larger than the aggregate fleet size of the next nine biggest car rental companies nationwide and four times that of the number two player.
China Auto Rental's customer base has growing from approximately 450,000 in December 2011 to 1.79 million as of March 2014. Its fleet has more than doubled in size during this period. Nearly two thirds of reservations in 2013 came via the company's website and mobile app.
The company posted total revenue of RMB2.7 billion in 2013, of which 81.7% came from car rentals and 18.3% from the sale of used vehicles. This compares to RMB1.6 billion in 2012 and RMB819 million in 2011. Net losses widened from RMB151.2 million in 2011 to RMB223.4 million in 2013, but the most recent quarterly earnings indicate a return to profitability.
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