JD Health lays groundwork for HK listing

JD Health, the health unit of e-commerce giant JD, filed a preliminary prospectus for its listing of shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Sunday night.

According to the prospectus filed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the total revenue of JD Health increased from 5.6 billion yuan ($821 million) in 2017 to 8.2 billion in 2018 and further to 10.8 billion in 2019. Its revenue reached 8.8 million yuan in the first half of this year, an increase of 76 percent on a yearly basis.

JD Health began as an e-commerce platform that sold pharmaceutical and healthcare products. It is diversifying its services by providing online healthcare services, such as online consultation, prescription renewal and chronic disease management.

According to a report from consultancy Frost & Sullivan, the company is the largest online healthcare platform and the largest online retail pharmacy by revenue in China as of year.

The prospectus also said as of June 30, 2020, there were over 9,000 third-party merchants on its online marketplace. Its "omnichannel" initiative meets users' needs for urgent medication and offers same-day, next-day and 30-minute, 24/7 on-demand delivery services in over 200 cities in China.

In the first half of 2020, it had an average of approximately 90,000 daily online consultations due to the COVID-19 outbreak, almost six times the first half of 2019.

JD, which is listed on Nasdaq in New York, has raised $3.87 billion from the Hong Kong bourse via a secondary listing in June 18.