Xiaomi gets ambitious for IPO, targets $200 Bn valuation: Report

The Chinese smartphone maker company Xiaomi is planning to launch IPO by the middle of this year at a target valuation of $200 billion, according to Phoenix News.

The Beijing-based company is considering an offering with investment banks suggesting Hong Kong as the most likely destination.

Late last year, Bloomberg reported Xiaomi was in talks with investment banks about a possible initial public offering and seeking a valuation of at least $50 billion.

The earlier speculated $50 billion valuation figure was much less than a $100 billion which its executives had thought of to reach when they decide to launch an offering. Xiaomi last raised money in 2014 at a $46 billion valuation.

However, the new target valuation of $200 billion for IPO launch will be more than two times higher than Baidu’s current valuation which, according to NASDAQ, amounted to $85 billion.

Xiaomi has been observing an unprecedented growth in its business. In 2017, the company outstripped the annual revenue target by 18 per cent and hit the revenue of $15 billion. During the same year, it clocked a net profit of at least $1 billion with a target to reach about $2 billion profit in 2018.

Xiaomi in India

After China, India has become the next largest market for Xiaomi. In less than three years of its launch in India, Xiaomi turned profitable in the country in the fiscal ended March 2017.

Xiaomi registered the maximum growth during FY17 with sales surging 696 per cent to Rs 8,379.3 crore. It made a profit of Rs 163.9 crore. A year ago, it had revenues of Rs 1,046.2 crore with net loss of Rs 46.9 crore. 

It also set a target to hit $2 billion revenue mark in 2017, twice the amount from 2016.

The company witnessed its sales quadrupled in September quarter in India. It has emerged as the fastest growing smartphone brand in the country, according to the International Data Corporation.

The Chinese phone maker company accounted for 24 percent of India’s smartphone market in the third quarter ending September this year. This is over 7 per cent rise from the last quarter when its market share was at 17 percent.