Investors seek another Google in China's Baidu
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-27 10:07

A year after Google Inc.'s momentous stock debut comes Baidu.com Inc., China's largest search engine.

No one wants to predict that next week's initial public offering (IPO) of Beijing-based Baidu.com will follow the same trajectory as Google, whose shares have more than tripled in value since it went public last August.

But Baidu's IPO has all the ingredients of one that is likely to do really, really well.

"This has all the potential to be one of the best deals this year," said Sal Morreale, who tracks IPOs for Cantor Fitzgerald in Los Angeles.

Baidu was the most frequently used search engine in China in 2004, according to a survey by Shanghai iResearch Co., and was the second-largest Web site in China in terms of user traffic during the three months ended July 18, according to Alexa.com.

Net income for the three months that ended in March was $303 million (euro252.77 million), more than double compared with the same period a year ago.

There are likely more good times ahead, since China's Internet market is growing at a fast clip: according to iResearch, the number of Internet search users in China is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 27.5 percent from 2005 to 2007.

"This company has a growth opportunity that's going to be seen by investors as enormous," says Paul Bard, an analyst with Renaissance Capital LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut. "And I'm sure what people are going to say is, 'Wow, this could be what Google was three years ago."'

Even Google appears to think the company is a good investment: The U.S. search engine owns 2.6 percent of Baidu, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and isn't listed among the entities that plan to sell their stakes in the IPO. Google did not return calls seeking comment.

However, Baidu, formed in 2000, is at a much earlier stage in its development than Google's was when it went public, says Bard. Google also has the added advantage of being a global search engine, while Baidu is focused purely on China, he said.

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