Renren US listing planned this year

Renren.com plans to list in the US later this year, the Financial Times reported. The company is looking to raise about US$500 million in an offering to be underwritten by Deutsche Bank (DB.NYSE, DBK.FWB), among others. This would make the Chinese firm one of the first social networking sites that the public can invest into. Renren has not published its financial information, but said that advertising revenue grew more than 100% last year, following a similar rise in 2009. The site currently has 160 million registered users and is owned by Oak Pacific Interactive, a privately-owned fund that bought the company in 2006.