VC-backed E-House plans US listing for subsidiary Leju
E-House, a Chinese real estate service agency backed by several VC and internet strategic investors, is preparing a US IPO for its wholly-owned subsidiary Leju Holdings that could raise up to $200 million.
IPO terms have yet to be announced.
Leju offers real estate e-commerce, online advertising and online listings services in China, covering over 250 cities and various mobile applications. In addition to its own website, the company operates real estate and home furnishings sites for Baidu and Sina Corp. It also provides offline services to facilitate residential property transactions.
Leju's revenue nearly doubled to $335.4 million in 2013 from $171.3 million in 2012. The company turned a profit of $42.7 million in 2013, having suffered net losses of $43.8 million and $438.3 million in 2012 and 2011, respectively.
According to AVCJ Research, China Renaissance Capital Investment, DLJ Real Estate Partners, Susquehanna Asia Investment and Farallon Capital committed a total of $25 million to parent company E-House in 2006.
China Renaissance Capital invested through its China Harvest Fund, taking an approximately 20% stake. It sold 2.26 million shares, representing a 2.83% stake in E-House, for $26 million when the company went public in the US in 2009.
On Tuesday, E-House formed a property-oriented financial services joint venture with Sina, Sequoia Capital China, and Yunfeng Capital. The JV will provide a series of asset-backed financial products for E-House's home buyers and Sina's online users. E-House and Sina will each have a 42.5% stake in the venture.
The real estate financial service JV is regarded as a crucial move for Sina to expand into online financial services space.
Meanwhile, Leju entered into an agreement with Tencent Holdings on Monday to jointly develop software and tools for Tencent's social networking mobile application WeChat.
Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan and China Renaissance are the lead underwriters to the offering, according to a regulatory filing.
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