Hearts Beating for Baidu.com
The Wall Street money machine gets a big test Thursday night when a Chinese search engine prices 4 million initial shares for listing on the
Nasdaq
.
Baidu.com
(BIDU) - Get Baidu Inc. Report
, based in Beijing, said in a regulatory filing that it expects the shares to price at $23 to $25 apiece, up from its earlier range of $19 to $21. It has also increased the size of the IPO to 4.04 million shares from the previously announced 3.6 million.
At the midpoint of its projected price range, Baidu.com will raise $101 million.
As the Chinese counterpart to the popular U.S. search company
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, Baidu.com is being compared to one of the hottest Wall Street IPOs of the last half-decade. Its revenue is only a fraction of Google's, but it has shown impressive growth in recent years, posting $4.5 million in operating cash flow in 2004 after breaking even the previous year. Google owns a 2.6% stake in the company.
Baidu will make its Wall Street debut at a time when Chinese companies have become a lightning rod in the U.S. financial markets and political circles. The Chinese government's recent revaluation of its currency followed a couple of attempts by Chinese companies to acquire U.S. assets, including the controversial bid for
Unocal
( UCL).
Meanwhile, the fast-growing Chinese economy has long been viewed as a new frontier for U.S. multinational corporations looking to find emerging markets, such as
Wal-Mart
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and
Starbucks
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.
With about 20 Chinese companies having listed on the Nasdaq since 2000, only about three Chinese IPOs have taken place in 2005, including
Hurray
( HRAY),
China Techfaith
(CNTF)
and
Focus Media
( FMCN).
Other Chinese companies with popular stocks trading on the Nasdaq include
Sina.com
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and
Sohu.com
(SOHU) - Get Sohu.com Ltd. Report
.
