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Baidu eyes US listing Top Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com aimed to raise roughly US$200 million in a US IPO this year, sources familiar with the situation said, looking to emulate last year's blockbuster listing by search king Google Inc, which holds a small stake in the mainland firm. Baidu is eyeing a listing as early as the first half of the year and is considering both the NASDAQ and New York exchanges. Given that Internet firms, including those in China, typically prefer the tech-heavy NASDAQ, that may be a more likely venue. Investment banks Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs were expected to underwrite the IPO, a source said. Both declined comment. Baidu plans to sell about 25 percent of its capital through the deal, which would value the firm at roughly US$800 million. By comparison, Google is worth US$52 billion after its stock has rallied 130 percent since its mid-August IPO, giving it a price-to-earnings ratio of 57 times based on 2005 projections. Last summer, Google joined a handful of investors in a round of fund-raising by Beijing-based Baidu that was believed to be have been worth nearly US$20 million. Dick Wei, an analyst at JP Morgan in Hong Kong, said China's online search sector was likely to become more competitive, with domestic players as well as US Web powerhouse Yahoo.com stepping up their offerings. Founded in 1999, Baidu became profitable last year and has been growing its revenue by about 150 percent a year, a top executive said in September. The company declined to comment Tuesday. |
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