Jumia is not a Nigerian Company, Files IPO in NYSE as a German Firm

You might not know this but Jumia is not a Nigerian company but a German company. This is to tell you that no Nigerian startup has indeed listed in New York Stock Exchange for whatever the prize may be!

Jumia, the African e-commerce company of German start-up investor Rocket Internet, has filed for a New York initial public offering, which could value the firm at $1.6 billion or more.

Jumia, founded in 2012 offers online shopping, logistics and payment services, but is losing money. The company says its business is expanding, and the continent’s development will make it a better market, with a growing young population, more infrastructure investments, urbanisation and rapid economic growth.

The New York filing did not say how many shares Jumia would sell, nor at what price.

In December, Jumia was valued at 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion) with shares at 14.74 euros, according to the filing.

Jumia, which now counts Nigeria as its largest market, makes money both selling its own products, and taking a cut from third-party sales. In 2018, revenues were 130.6 million euros, up from 94 million euros the previous year.

However, losses also rose, from 165.4 million euros in 2017 to 170.4 million euros in 2018. By the end of December, accumulated losses were 862 million euros, the firm said.

Today, Jumia has 4million active users, operating in 14 African countries, with Nigeria the largest market but its principal executive office is in Berlin Germany, not Lagos Nigeria.

Sources: (Reuters, Renaissancecapital)