China’s PE-backed Liepin files for Hong Kong IPO

The initial prospectus does not indicate the size or pricing of the offering, or whether existing investors will sell any shares. Matrix Partners China and Warburg Pincus hold 24.49% and 23.89% of the company, respectively.

Beijing-headquartered Liepin operates a platform that connects employers, headhunters and job seekers. It was founded in 2006 as Lietou.com, a social media site for professionals similar to LinkedIn. The company switched to the headhunter model two years later. In 2014, it became known as Liepin, partly in response to LinkedIn's entry into the China market.

Matrix invested in two rounds between 2010 and 2011, which were worth $6.4 million in total, and then led a $6 million Series B in 2012. Warburg Pincus led a $70 million Series C round in April 2014, followed by Matrix.

In 2016, a fund launched by China Mobile in partnership with the State Development Corporation (SDIC) led a $100 million Series D round for the company. Matrix, Huatai New Industry Fund, and vehicles managed by Tianhong Asset Management, China Cinda Asset Management, Beijing New Century Fund Management, and Shenzhen Qianhe Capital Management, also participated.

The company generates revenue from a corporate client base that pays annual membership fees to post jobs and access resumes in the Liepin database. Individual users also pay for career consulting services. As of last year, the company had 3.9 million registered individual users, 248,600 corporate users, and over 101,000 headhunters on its platform.

Revenue grew from RMB587.10 million ($93 million) in 2016 to RMB824.66 million in 2017. It made a net profit of RMB7.55 million last year after suffering losses of RMB230.72 million and RMB139.73 million in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• IPO
• China
• TMT
• Warburg Pincus Asia
• Hong Kong (China)
• Matrix Partners