Zhaopin IPO raises $76 m on NYSE

China's leading career platform Zhaopin Limited made its trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange June 12, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

Zhaopin has also secured a concurrent private placement deal with Apax Partners, a New York-based equity-management group, that in conjunction with stock options for underwriters, could bring the total raised through Zhaopin's offering to more than $100 million.

Zhaopin is the latest Chinese company to go public in the US this year, a list that now includes the better part of 20 companies, according to Bloomberg News.

Three weeks ago, e-commerce giant JD.com raised $1.78 billion in the biggest IPO in the US by a Chinese company to date; it also gave the firm a foothold in the US market ahead of its much larger rival Alibaba Holdings Group Ltd, China's No 1 e-commerce firm. Alibaba's IPO, expected to be held later this year, could exceed $20 billion, according to some estimates.

"[Zhaopin] wants to concentrate on the domestic market because that's where their stronghold is," said Josef Schuster, founder of Ipox Schuster LLC, a Chicago-based independent financial-services firm specializing in global IPOs. "They seem to be valued in line, but it always depends on whether they meet the fundamentals of earnings and revenue growth."

Schuster also said Zhaopin is part of "another huge wave of Chinese IPO activity" taking advantage of the "window of opportunity" for Chinese IPOs ahead of Alibaba.

The other successful Chinese IPOs in the US this year may give investors confidence about Zhaopin's prospects, but at the end of the day Guo said US investors are looking for solid growth, "not just in revenue, but also for profits".

"We're very proud not only because we have commercial value, but also social value," Guo said. "We're not only helping people find a job, we're helping them develop a career."

jackfreifelder@chinadailyusa.com

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