HK's China.com Raises $84 Mln in Initial Stock Sale (Update1)
Bloomberg News
July 12, 1999, 9:29 p.m. PT
(Adds comment from fund manager in 3rd paragraph.)
Hong Kong, July 13 (Bloomberg) -- China.com Corp., which operates bilingual Web sites that serve as gateways to the Internet for China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, raised $84 million in an initial stock sale.
The Hong Kong-based company, half of whose 350,000 customers are in the city, sold 4.2 million shares at $20 each. The shares were sold at the high end of a range set by Lehman Brothers Inc., which handled the transaction.
''It's the easiest IPO ever by a Hong Kong company,'' said Andrew Look, a fund manager at Prudential Portfolio Managers Asia Ltd., which manages about $4.5 billion in the region. ''People are willing to pay a lot of money for potential. They won't see much in the way of earnings in the short to medium term.''
China.com posted a loss of $8.5 million in 1998 on revenue of $3.5 million. The loss widened from $4.1 million a year earlier, on revenue of $509,000.
The China.com Web sites, www.china.com, www.cww.com,www.hongkong.com, and www.taiwan.com, have Chinese and English language pages, including free e-mail subscriptions, links to e-commerce vendors and pages dedicated to the weather, finance,sports and entertainment. The company has more than 350,000 registered customers on its three sites.
Investors include New World Infrastructure Ltd., a Hong Kong-based company that invests in and manages roads, tunnels and bridges in China, with about 18 percent of the shares following the sale; Xinhua News Agency, China's government-run news agency,with about 11 percent of the shares; and Dulles, Virginia-based America Online Inc., the No. 1 online service, with about 8 percent. CMC Magnetics Corp., a Taiwanese maker of computer storage media, has about 3.5 percent.
Other shareholders include 24/7 Media Inc. and Edelson Technology Partners.
''We're very pleased to be first Hong Kong Internet portal to get a Nasdaq listing,'' said Ellen O'Gorman, a spokeswoman for China.com. ''We're overwhelmed by the response by investors.''
Look said China.com's investors were right to be pleased, as they timed the share sale perfectly. ''It's a good harvest for New World,'' he said.
Lehman Brothers also handled the sale of Redwood City, California-based Liquid Audio Inc., which more than doubled on Friday, its first day of trading. Liquid Audio sells software that lets consumers download music from the Internet.
Pacific Internet Ltd., one of three Internet service providers in Singapore, more than doubled in its first day of trading, in early February.
China.com will trade under the symbol ''CHINA'' on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Bear, Stearns & Co. and E*Trade Securities Inc. assisted in the sale. |
