Boss Zhipin files for $100m US IPO

Chinese online recruitment platform Kanzhun Limited, whose core product is Boss Zhipin app, filed for an initial public offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 21 to raise up to $100 million, the paper.cn reported on Saturday.

Boss Zhipin, a mobile platform that allows employers to interact and connect with job seekers through direct chat, plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol BZ, according to its registration statement.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank are the joint bookrunners on the deal.

According to the registration statement, Boss Zhipin had served 11.4 million verified enterprise users and 5.5 million verified enterprises as of Dec 31, 2020. Its verified enterprise users and verified enterprises reached 13 million and 6.3 million as of March 31, 2021, respectively. In 2020 and the 12 months ended March 31, 2021, the recruitment platform had 2.23 million and 2.89 million paid enterprise customers, respectively.

Average MAU (Monthly Active Users) of Boss Zhipin grew by 73.2 percent from 11.5 million in 2019 to 19.8 million in 2020 and from 14.5 million in the three months ended March 31, 2020, to 24.9 million in the three months ended March 31, 2021, representing growth of 71.8 percent, the statement said. The platform includes both job seekers and enterprise users when calculating key metrics, including MAU and DAU.

Revenues of Boss Zhipin increased by 94.7 percent from 998.7 million yuan ($155.1 million) in 2019 to 1,944.4 million yuan in 2020 and from 282.6 million yuan for the three months ended March 31, 2020, to 788.5 million yuan for the three months ended March 31, 2021, representing growth of 179 percent.

The platform recorded net losses of 502.1 million yuan, 941.9 million yuan and 176.2 million yuan in 2019, 2020, and the three months ended March 31, 2021, respectively, the registration statement showed.

Adjusted net losses were 467.8 million yuan, 284.7 million yuan and 127.5 million yuan in 2019, 2020 and for the three months ended March 31, 2021, respectively.

According to the statement, the issued and outstanding share capital will consist of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares.

Holders of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares have the same rights except for voting and conversion rights. Each Class A ordinary share is entitled to one vote, and each Class B ordinary share is entitled to 15 votes and is convertible into one Class A ordinary share. Class A ordinary shares are not convertible into Class B ordinary shares under any circumstances.

Zhao Peng, founder, chairman and CEO of Boss Zhipin, will beneficially own all of the issued Class B ordinary shares.

Institutional investors, such as Capital Today, Tencent, Gaorong Capital, Ceyuan Ventures, Coatue, Goldman Sachs, GGV and MSA Capital, own 14.7, 12.2, 9.4, 8.7, 7.8, 7.3, 6.4, and 5.7 percent of Class A ordinary shares, respectively.

Funds raised will be used in investment in technology infrastructure and R&D, marketing activities and the discovery of new products and services, the report said.