(Yicai Global) Feb. 2 -- Shares in JD.Com gained today despite China’s second-largest e-commerce player declining to comment on recent media reports that unit JD Logistics will file to list in Hong Kong this month, online news outlet The Paper reported.

JD.Com [HKG:9618] closed up 5.5 percent at HKD372.40 (USD48).

The distribution arm of JD.com has already chosen Bank of America and Goldman Sachs to prepare it to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange later this year, with an eye to raising at least USD4 billion, according to media reports last month.

In its last funding round in February 2018, JD Logistics, which is 81 percent owned by JD.com, secured USD2.5 billion from investors including Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital China and internet titan Tencent Holdings, giving the Beijing-based company a value of USD13.5 billion.

However, the firm, which operates 800 warehouses nationwide, remains unprofitable. In 2019, it racked up losses of CNY1 billion (USD155 million). Last December, the unit’s chief executive officer Wang Zhenhui resigned and was replaced with, Ya Rui, chief human resources officer at JD.com

Another of JD.com’s subsidiaries, JD Health International, raised USD3.5 billion in its Hong Kong IPO in December.

Editor: Kim Taylor