Pan-African e-commerce conglomerate, Jumia has set a price range of $13 to $16 per share ahead of an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
The online retailer will offer 13.5 million American depository shares for purchase, according to an updated filing of its IPO filing with US regulators, and could raise as much as $216 million, depending on investors’ appetite. If traded at the mid-point of that price range, for instance, Jumia’s valuation will be pegged around $1.1 billion.
Jumia is yet to announce an established trading timeline.
Jumia, which will trade as “JMIA” on the NYSE, has also received a cash injection ahead of its public offering: in a private stock sale, the company has confirmed a $56 million private placement from Mastercard Europe.
Mastercard will buy shares at whatever price investors agree ahead of the float and give Jumia a confidence boost ahead of an uncertain listing for a young company which positions itself both as an “emerging growth company” and a “foreign private ” as defined under US securities regulations.
As with most companies ahead of a prospective listing, Jumia’s S1 filing covered several risk factors for investors to consider while it talked up its ambitions in Africa’s e-commerce space, including touting its four million active customers across 14 African countries.
As of the end of last year, Jumia had accumulated losses of nearly $1 billion and had negative operating cash flows of $159.2 million, for the 12 months to Dec 31, 2018. Its annual losses have also grown annually widening to $195.2 million on revenue of just $149.6 million last year.