HONG KONG -- JD Health, the health care subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, filed for an initial public offering to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by Monday in a bid to raise $1.8 billion to $2.8 billion within the year.
JD Health operates the largest pharmaceutical retail website in China, and plans to use the fresh funds for research and development.
JD.com carried out a secondary listing in Hong Kong in June. The parent launched its health care business in 2014 and began online diagnosis services in 2017. It plans to maintain a majority stake in JD Health after the IPO.
In China, lifestyle-related diseases are increasing, boosting demand in the health care sector. The coronavirus has accelerated this demand, in addition to driving people to online medical services.
According to documents filed by JD Health, revenue jumped 76% to hit 8.7 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) year on year in the six months through June.
Chinese tech giants have sought to harness health-related businesses to drive growth, rolling out a wide range of services like online consultations, hospital reservations and pharmaceutical sales.
Ping An Good Doctor, a unit of Ping An Insurance Group, and Alibaba's health care arm Alibaba Health Information Technology have both gone public in Hong Kong.
WeDoctor, an online medical services provider backed by Tencent Holdings, is also getting ready for a share float in Hong Kong.
