China job site Zhaopin trading strongly after $75.7m US IPO

Zhaopin is majority-owned by Australian job site Seek, which built up a 79% stake in the business between 2006 and 2013, providing an exit for VC investors such as iD TechVentures, Legend Capital, Orchid Asia and Macquarie Capital in the process. A vehicle owned by Australian businessman James Packer retains an interest in Zhaopin.

The company sold 5.6 million American Depository Shares (ADS) at $13.50 apiece, around the midpoint of the indicative range. Apax also put in $14.1 million for 2.22 million Class A ordinary shares. Its stock opened on the New York Stock Exchange at $14.51 last Thursday and closed Monday at $15.80.

Seek and Packer didn't sell any shares in the offering and own 68.3% and 16.7% of Zhaopin, respectively.

Founded in 1994, Zhaopin claims to be the second-largest online recruitment services provider in China, with more than 77 million registered users. More than 10.5 million job postings were placed on its platform by 250,000 employers during the year ended June 2013. This rose to 11.4 million postings by 274,450 employers for the nine months ended March 2014.

The company recorded revenues of RMB889.6 million ($143.1 million) for the year ended June 2013, up from RMB821.5 million the previous year. However, Zhaopin slipped from a profit of RMB3.9 million to a loss of RMB109.1 million, largely due to a dividend payout. Revenue for the nine months ended March 2014 came to RMB601.6 million and the company recorded a profit of RMB129.6 million.

Credit Suisse and UBS were the joint bookrunners for the IPO.

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