Baozun raises $110 million in IPO

Updated: 2015-05-22 11:20

By Jack Freifelder in New York(China Daily USA)

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Baozun Inc, China's leading e-commerce solutions provider whose top shareholder is Alibaba, raised $110 million on Thursday in an initial public offering, missing its target of $129 million.

Trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York under the symbol BZUN, the second IPO from a Chinese company on a US exchange this year sold 11 million American depositary shares.

Baozun shares priced at $10, below the $12-$14 range the company had initially set. Shares opened at $10.25 and ranged from $9.23 to $10.89, before closing at $10.44, up 4.4 percent.

Baozun said money from the offering will go to marketing and research initiatives, as well as development and infrastructure.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's largest e-commerce company, had held 23 percent of Baozun, but that dropped to 18.2 percent following the IPO.

Baozun, which was established in Shanghai in 2007, provides website design, digital marketing and logistics services for retailers and brands. It holds a 20 percent share of the Chinese market, according to iResearch, a Beijing-based Internet industry consultancy.

China's e-commerce market is set to grow from roughly $130 billion in 2014 to $379 billion by 2017, according to iResearch. As of March 31, Baozun had revenue of $77 million, a 77 percent increase from $43.3 million in the year-ago period.

Baozun's pool of brand partners has grown nearly 70 percent in the last three years, from 56 in 2012 to 94 as of March, the company said in a May 15 update to its F-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Its clients include Nike Inc, Microsoft Corp and Philips.

Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Bank of America Merrill Lynch managed the deal for Baozun.

Earlier this year, Wowo Ltd, a Beijing-based e-commerce firm, brought a $40 million IPO to Nasdaq.

jackfreifelder@chinadailyusa.com

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