Youku.com Inc. surged in the biggest gain for a U.S. initial public offering in five years and E- Commerce China Dangdang Inc. almost doubled in its debut, the latest sign of booming demand for Chinese Internet companies.
Youku.com, China’s largest online video company, soared 161 percent to $33.44 today, after completing a $203 million IPO. The first-day advance was the biggest since Beijing-based Baidu Inc., owner of China’s most-used Internet search engine, more than quadrupled after its offering in August 2005. China Dangdang, the country’s biggest book retailer, gained 87 percent after its $272 million initial sale.
The offerings were the first of five mainland Chinese IPOs scheduled in the U.S. this week. The four previous Internet companies from China that completed sales this year surged an average of 57 percent in their first day of trading, Bloomberg data show. China, home to more than 400 million Internet users, may expand four times as fast as the U.S. next year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Youku.com and China Dangdang are “two companies that excite investors’ imagination,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Chicago-based Harris Private Bank, which oversees $55 billion. The IPOs represent an “intersection of China and the Internet, and so everyone’s jumping on board for that theme,” he said.
‘Excellent and Cool’
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of New York managed Youku.com’s sale, while Credit Suisse Group AG in Zurich and New York-based Morgan Stanley of New York led the offering for China Dangdang. Both companies are based in Beijing.
Prior to Youku.com’s debut, ChinaCache International Holdings Ltd., a Beijing-based provider of content for business websites, had the biggest first-day rally on U.S. exchanges in three years, jumping 95 percent on Oct. 1.
Youku.com, whose name means “excellent and cool,” sold 15.85 million ADRs for $12.80 apiece after offering 15.4 million for $9 to $11 each, an SEC filing and Bloomberg data showed.
The midpoint valued Youku.com at 15 times projected annual sales, compared with the median of 3 times estimated 2011 revenue for 12 U.S.-traded Internet-content providers, data compiled by IPOdesktop.com and Bloomberg show. It hasn’t posted a profit in the last three years.
China’s online-video market more than doubled to 621 million yuan ($93 million) last quarter, according to Beijing- based research company Analysys International. Google Inc.’s YouTube, the world’s most popular video-sharing site, is inaccessible in China.
‘Market Opportunity’
“The market opportunity, especially on the consumer side, is becoming increasingly clear and continues to be robust,” Victor Koo, founder and chief executive officer of Youku.com, said in a telephone interview from the NYSE. “That’s something that’s interesting and exciting for a lot of U.S. investors.”
China Dangdang sold 17 million American depositary receipts at $16 each yesterday after originally offering them for $11 to $13 apiece, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and data compiled by Bloomberg.
The company had increased the price range for its offering to $13 to $15 apiece this week from $11 to $13.
The original midpoint valued the company at 48 times annual earnings, based on third-quarter results, data compiled by Marina del Rey, California-based IPOdesktop.com show. That’s 64 percent higher than the median of 29.2 times estimated profit for 11 U.S.-traded Internet retailers, Bloomberg data show.
Amazon.com Inc. of Seattle, the biggest online merchant, trades at 39 times profit, the data show. |
发表于 2010-12-8 18:28
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