China’s Amazon Eyes $5 Billion U.S. IPO
China’s answer to Amazon.com is targeting a U.S. initial public offering of up to $5 billion next year, despite U.S. investor wariness toward Chinese firms.
A decision by Beijing-based online retailer Jingdong Mall to shun the Hong Kong market, the most popular venue for Asian firms, may be a bet that Internet investors are savvier in the U.S. and may be more willing to give the company a heftier valuation. Asia has few large Internet stocks. The IPO, if it materializes, would be far larger than the listing of Google Inc., which holds the record for the largest U.S. Internet IPO at $1.9 billion in 2004, and of Internet-related offerings elsewhere in the world.