CTI China Renaissance: Upcoming IPO for ZTO Express could be largest this year

SEOUL, South Korea - Nov. 7, 2016 - PRLog -- ZTO's upcoming IPO later in October is just the latest in a series of Chinese companies looking to make the most of its expansion opportunities by reeling in Western investment groups. The strategy is also useful because the company can dodge the inevitable bureaucracy that comes with launching an IPO back home.

According to reports from iResearch and mentioned in ZTO's prospectus, China is the world's number one express delivery market, handling roughly double the amount of parcels than its nearest competing market, the United States, with over 20 billion deliveries last year.

Beijing-based investment firm CTI China Renaissance have a minority stake in ZTO and Zheng Longwei, the company's Chief Executive Officer said, "We expect ZTO to offer over 70 million shares in U.S. repository form at a price range from $16.60 to $18.60. It's a very exciting time for investors as it will make it so much easier for us to monetize our stakes inside a huge market like the U.S."

Other large investors in ZTO include equity firm Warburg Picus LLC and Hong Kong-based Hillhouse Capital Management Ltd, who both ploughed funds into the company last year.

ZTO works closely with Alibaba and other e-commerce firms delivering their parcels, among other services. They are also rearing a very promising e-commerce operation of their own, and are hoping to expand that area of the business by raising funds in the IPO. Their prospectus stated that the firm delivered around 15 percent of all parcels in China in 2015, and company sales soared 10 percent last year.

Other uses for the capital inflow will be to improve infrastructure within China and purchase a brand new upgraded fleet of delivery vehicles.