By Kimberley Kao
Chinese ride-hailing firm Dida shares surged after it swung to profit for the first half of the year.
Shares jumped by as much as 50% in Hong Kong on Monday, and were last 35% higher--on track for their biggest one-day gain since the company went public in June. The stock remains over 60% below its initial public offering price of HK$6.00.
Dida on Friday posted a net profit of 947.9 million yuan, equivalent to US$133.6 million for the first half of the year. That compared with a loss of 220.2 million yuan in the year-ago period.
Revenue rose 2.0% to 396.2 million yuan for the half.
As of June 30, it had rolled out carpooling services across 366 cities in China, with 368 million registered users. Certified private car owners on the platform rose 17% on year to 17.7 million over the six-month period.
Dida, which operates one of the largest carpooling platforms in China, has received investments from the likes of e-commerce giant JD.com, investment firm Nio Capital, and Chinese online travel agency Ctrip.
"We believe carpooling in China is still at its early stage of development," but has the potential to be a huge market, Dida said Friday.
It said it has been using artificial intelligence to optimize order matching between rides and drivers, and improve route planning and customer service.
Dida said it has been working with Alibaba's DingTalk platform to jointly develop a carpooling service for office workers, and with Baidu Maps on carpooling and taxi services.
Dida's share-price performance since its listing in June has been lackluster, amid muted investor sentiment in Hong Kong's equities market.
Shares of tea shop giant Sichuan Baicha Baidao Industrial, which raised HK$2.46 billion in the city's biggest IPO of the year in April, were last trading over 60% below their listing price on Monday.
Write to Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 02, 2024 00:00 ET (04:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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