Recently, Shanghai-based car rental company eHi (eHi Car Services Ltd.), nearly five years after delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, is considering returning to the U.S. capital market and will conduct its first public IPO this year, planning to raise 300 million U.S. dollars.
eHi Car Services was established in January 2006. It mainly provides comprehensive car travel services for individual and corporate users, including car rental and driving services. Its customers are located in more than 500 cities in China, covering many fields such as energy, education, advertising, finance and manufacturing. The company has more than 10,000 service outlets in China and owns more than 80,000 rental vehicles, covering more than 200 models. eHi Car Services is not only the designated business car service company for many of top 500 companies in China, but has also become a new choice for urban white-collar workers and business people to travel.
eHi Car Services was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 with the stock code "EHIC". It is the first Chinese car rental company listed in the United States. However, eHi Car Services was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after an $850 million privatization transaction in 2019, with a market value of approximately $853 million at the time. Although there was news that eHi Car Services was considering listing in Hong Kong in 2021 with a valuation of approximately US$1 billion, the plan has not been implemented.
According to relevant disclosures, eHi Car Services is currently cooperating with CICC(中金), Deutsche Bank(德意志银行), JPMorgan Chase(摩根大通) and UBS Group(瑞银集团) to prepare for relisting. Once it receives approval from Chinese regulators, the company may submit its listing application confidentially. If successfully relisted in the United States, eHi Car Services will become one of the few Chinese companies to return to the U.S. capital market.
Representatives of CICC, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and UBS declined to comment, and eHi Car Services did not respond.