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To: TFF who wrote (2085)	2/27/2004 6:54:23 PM
From: TFF	Respond to of 2802

China IPO's on deck Shanghai wireless services firm to list on Nasdaq By Steve Gelsi, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 12:07 PM ET Feb. 27, 2004 NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Shanghai-based wireless services firm Linktone plans to debut its initial public offering in the U.S. late next week as the latest in a series of stock market offerings from China firms. The company is the first of a trio of China IPOs -- along with Tom Online and Semiconductor Manufacturing International -- expected to kick off in March as investors look for ways to tap into growth in the world's most populous nation. The company sells ring tones, games and short messaging services for wireless phone users in China. Linktone will mark the first technology IPO from China since online travel service Ctrip.com (CTRP: news, chart, profile) soared in its debut on Dec. 8 at $18 per share. See full story. While IPO investors remain choosy, deals like Linktone continue to draw interest, partly because of the popularity of China-based tech stocks such as Chinadotcom (CHINA: news, chart, profile) and Sina (SINA: news, chart, profile). Linktone is expected to debut its IPO on Thursday. Linktone (LTON: news, chart, profile) plans to offer 6.06 million shares at $10-$12 each in a bid to raise about $73 million in an IPO with underwriters CS First Boston, JP Morgan, Piper Jaffray and CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. Linktone rang up $3.6 million in net income and $16.6 million in 2003 revenue, up from a net loss of $536,000 and revenue of $4.3 million in the year-ago period. Its services are offered through China Mobile, China Unicom and other providers with a user base of about 5.6 million for the month of December. The growth in their business comes as the number of wireless users in China mushroomed to about 270 million at the start of 2004, with a total market penetration of about 21 percent, one of the lowest in Asia, according to Linktone's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.