Jihan Wu, the co-CEO of crypto mining hardware giant Bitmain, is reportedly planning to conduct an overseas initial private offering (IPO), Fortune’s crypto-focused section The Ledger reports July 30.
Bloomberg had reported in June that Wu was “open” to holding an IPO in a market with U.S. dollar denominated shares — like Hong Kong — as it would allow early backers to cash in funds.
Fortune writes today that their daily newsletter “Term Sheet” acquired an email from an unnamed source close to Bitmain detailing the firm’s recent financials before the IPO, which will be filed for “very soon” in such an overseas market.
According to figures mentioned in the email, Bitmain earned around $1 billion in net profit in the first quarter of 2018, with an estimated $2 to $3 billion in profit for the year.
The email notes that Bitmain plans to raise more funds for a total valuation of around $14 billion, a figure almost 17 percent higher than the $12 billion figure reported after a Series B June funding round. Bitmain also saw $1.2 billion in net profit and about a 50 percent net margin in 2017, according to an audit by “Big Four” firm KPMG cited by the email.
Bitmain raised between $300 and $400 million from Sequoia Capital subsidiary Sequoia China, U.S. hedge fund Coatue, and Singapore-based governmental investment fund EDBI during its funding round in June. The firm had previously received $50 million in a Series A funding round from Sequoia Capital and IDG Capital in September 2017.
At the end of June, Bitmain disclosed both its mining and mining hardware shipping practices with the intention to show the firm’s commitment to supporting a “fair and transparent cryptocurrency ecosystem.”