Thread by @SeanPeche

1/ I took a look at the prospectus of the 2nd largest, US IPO by a Chinese firm - Didi

You know, the taxi company

My apologies, the “Mobility Technology Platform”

If you can make it emotionally past the teary Founders’ letters about memories of, a wintery night in 2012 with a

2/ "jacket that was no match for the wind”

and

“the gnawing anxiety of being stuck somewhere (with 3 children) on a rainy day or snowy night with no way to get home..”

you’ll see they dropped $1bn from operations in the 3 months to March

We’d all surely be better off if

3/ they'd bought thicker jackets or checked their weather apps before venturing out

Except of course the current shareholders and 20 underwriters/investment banks hawking this stuff around town

And if you’re suffering from buzzword withdrawal, look no further than their

4/ “Vision” – "AI, Big data, electric, powering, autonomous, network…" they’re all included

But give them credit, they’re thinking big

“The global mobility market is expected to reach $16.4 trillion by 2040”

Now that’s a big number… a long way off

and may well include

5/ everything mobile from air travel to zimmer frames but seriously, does anyone actually believe this stuff?

I guess someone must - with a $68bn market cap

Anglo American is only worth $50bn and analysts think it will make $8bn of net income this year

Yet Didi loses money

6/ Although not as much as shareholders will lose if the owners of the Variable Interest Entities (VIEs) or their spouses do a runner

What?

You see this “mobility technology platform” is basically owned by the chaps with thin jackets (foreigners can’t own Chinese tech

7/ companies directly)

and we’re warned

"The shareholders of our VIEs may have actual or potential conflicts of interest with us"

Well, that’s comforting

and

"in the event that any of the individual shareholders divorces his or her spouse, the spouse may claim that the

8/ equity interest of our VIEs held by such shareholder is part of their community property and should be divided between such shareholders and his or her spouse."

My goodness

Oh well, at least the company listed just before the June quarter-end allowing bankers to book the

9/ fees and the shareholders including Alibaba and Tencent (with whom they have commercial arrangements) to book a non-cash profit

Apologies, “non-cash” is reserved for losses

I meant, “profit”

I think I’ll stick to owning Anglo American