E-commerce site 360buy plans massive US offering

Jingdong Mall, the operator of one of China’s biggest e-commerce sites, may seek to raise up to US$5 billion next year in New York in what would be the largest internet-related IPO in history, the Wall Street Journal reported. People familiar with the situation said the Beijing-based company, which operates e-commerce site 360buy.com, plans to raise between US$4-5 billion, and will choose its underwriters following a meeting with banks in Beijing next week. Jingdong Mall declined to comment on the news on Thursday. 360buy.com, which sells everything from laptops to high heels and has received investment from Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies, faces tough competition from e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and Dangdang, a site that was similarly touted as “China’s Amazon” during its US IPO last year. Shares of Dangdang soared 87% on its first day of trading last December, but it and other Chinese companies have seen their share prices plummet in the past year due to fraud scandals among Chinese companies and gloomy macroeconomic environment. The pace of US IPOs has slowed markedly this year, from an average of 12 per month in the first half of the year to just three in August, according to data provider Dealogic.