China's Dangdang Says Rah! Rah! to IPO

Think of Amazon.com, but for the Chinese market.

E-Commerce China Dangdang is the No. 1 business-to-consumer brand in China, and like Amazon, it started off selling books, but now it’s a sprawling online mall, offering everything from beauty supplies to clothing and more.

Today, it’s selling shares to the public for $16 apiece, AP reports. The stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange starting today under the ticker DANG.

The company really should be celebrating. The price is much higher than the already boosted prices of $13 to $15 a share the company originally was expecting. In all, it expects to make $168.6 million in proceeds, with the potential to sell up to $4 million more if underwriters exercise their option to buy additional shares.

The money will be used for general corporate purposes, including adding more product categories, or for acquisitions.

The 11-year-old company has about 1,142 full-time employees, and for the quarter ended Sept. 30 earned 32.7 million renminbi ($4.9 million), up from 8.3 million RMB ($1.2 million) in 2009. In the same period, its revenue rose to 606.7 million RMB from 389.3 million RMB.

Photo Credit: Skaines.

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