Tom online stock price ends flat
By Liu Baijia (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-03-12 11:15

Beijing-based Tom Online Inc stocks ended flat on its first day of trading on the Hong Kong Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) yesterday due to investors' worries of fierce competition in the Chinese mainland's wireless messaging service.

The company listed 1 billion shares, or 25.6 per cent of its share capital, raising HK$1.51 billion (US$194 million) yesterday.

The spinoff company of Hong Kong-based Tom Group Ltd saw its stock prices fall 6.7 per cent on the GEM from its initial public offering price of HK$1.5 (19 US cents).

Its American depositor shares, which began to trade on Wednesday on New York's NASDAQ stock market, closed at US$15.58, higher than the IPO price of US$15.5.

TOM Online shares were listed on the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), Hong Kong's second board on March 11. Wang Leilei (left), chief executive officer of Tom's Online division, watches his company's share performance at its debut in Hong Kong.[newsphoto]

"We do not think the performance of our stock prices on the first day meant a lot and we are confident in our strategy and business models," said a company statement.

"We have solid branding, an excellent track record, innovative products and the support of our investors, so we will be able to grasp the opportunities on the Chinese mainland and expand our business," Chief Executive Officer Wang Leilei said at the opening of trading in Hong Kong.

Influenced by the performance of Tom Online, the stock prices of its peers, including Netease.com Inc, Sina Corp, Sohu.com Inc, and Linktone.com Inc, also fell by 8 per cent and 11 per cent respectively on Wednesday on the NASDAQ.

Michael Yin, a Shanghai-based Internet analyst, believes investors' worries over growing competition in China's mobile messaging service market was the major factor in the poor performance of Tom Online's stocks.

"Tom Online's business is heavily concentrated on wireless messages, but competition is already quite heated," he said.

Wireless value-added services including mobile messages, ring tone downloads and picture downloads, were Tom Online's biggest source of revenue, contributing to 72.5 per cent of last year's US$77.03 million total.

Tom Online is the internet service division of multimedia company Tom.com Ltd.

Close