Chinese firm RYB Education rings NYSE opening bell to mark its IPO

NEW YORK - Chinese early childhood education service provider RYB Education Inc. on Wednesday started trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) after the company's management rang the opening bell.

RYB Education Inc., trading under the ticker symbol of "RYB" priced its initial public offering of 7,800,000 American depositary shares (ADSs), at $18.50 per ADS for a total offering size of approximately $144.30 million, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their over-allotment option to purchase additional ADSs.

Each ADS represents one Class A ordinary share of the company.

In addition, RYB's selling shareholders have granted the underwriters an option, exercisable within 30 days from the date of the final prospectus, to purchase up to an aggregate of 1,170,000 additional ADSs to cover over-allotments.

Shares of RYB, started trading at $24.12 per ADS on Wednesday, surging more than 45 percent to $26.95 apiece around midday.

"Listing on the NYSE is a milestone for RYB. With the support of the capital market, RYB can provide more-diversified and higher-quality services in the early childhood education," RYB Co-founder & CEO Yanlai Shi told Xinhua.

Urbanization and continued improvement in China's macroeconomic conditions are collectively enhancing Chinese families' willingness and ability to invest in early childhood education, which will give RYB great growth opportunities, she added.

RYB is the largest early childhood education service provider in China, as measured by annual total revenues in 2016, according to the Frost & Sullivan Report.

As of June 30, 2017, RYB directly operated 80 kindergartens and franchised additional 175 kindergartens, covering 130 cities and towns in China, according to the RYB prospectus.

RYB's net revenues increased to $64.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017 from $49.1 million for the same period of 2016, while its net income increased to $4.9 million for the first half year of 2017 from 4.1 million dollars for the same period a year ago.