(Bloomberg) -- Chinese online real estate platform KE Holdings Inc. raised $2.1 billion after pricing a sale of new stock at a 5.2% discount to its last close.
KE sold 35.4 million American depositary shares at $58 apiece, it said in a statement Thursday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. The company closed at $61.17 on Wednesday.
The share sale comes just over three months after KE went public in New York, making it the fastest-ever return to selling shares by a U.S.-listed Chinese company after its initial public offering, data compiled by Bloomberg show. KE's value has nearly tripled since its $2.4 billion IPO in August, marking a much-needed win for backer SoftBank Group Corp.
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank invested $1.35 billion last November in the Beijing-based company, which runs a site called Beike, or “seashells.” KE uses a national chain of physical real estate offices that has been around for almost two decades, paired with a two-year-old digital platform that helps match buyers and sellers with artificial intelligence algorithms. KE's other backers include Hillhouse Capital and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and China Renaissance Holdings Ltd. led KE's offering, according to a prospectus.
KE is not the only Chinese company raising big funds in the U.S. market this week. On Wednesday e-commerce firm Pinduoduo Inc. raised a combined $5.34 billion from an upsized sale of 28.7 million American depositary shares as well as a five-year zero-coupon convertible bond, according to a statement.
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