NEW YORK, Aug 13 — SoftBank-backed Chinese owner of real estate platforms KE Holdings Inc today raised US$2.12 billion (RM8.9 billion) in a US initial public offering that was priced above the target range.

The company, which owns property brokerage brand Lianjia and housing transactions platform Beike, said it sold 106 million American depositary shares (ADS) for US$20 each.

The company had aimed to sell each ADS that represented three class A ordinary shares at between US$17 and US$19.

Apart from SoftBank, KE counts Tencent Holdings, Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital among its largest investors.

The company’s share sale is the largest IPO of a Chinese company since March 2018, when video streaming site iQiyi raised US$2.4 billion from its US listing.

It comes at a time when US capital markets are in the middle of a stellar recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic put several debuts on hold.

According to several experts tracking IPOs, 2020 is already the best year for IPOs in at least two decades as companies have raised record amounts of capital from investors.

The listing also marks the second largest US IPO of the year, after Royalty Pharma, which raised US$2.18 billion in its stock market debut earlier this year.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, China Renaissance, J.P. Morgan and CICC were among underwriters for the IPO. — Reuters