The specialist e-commerce site Vancl was supposed to be on course for its US IPO in December, but rumors in the industry suggest it will be either delayed or cancelled, and that its vice-president, Wu Sheng (pictured right), has left the company and could well be headed to join its largest rival, 360Buy.
Wu Sheng’s departure from Vancl is still shrouded in mystery, and it’s not clear if it is linked to a possibly scuppered IPO. Sina Tech reckons Mr. Wu will be at 360Buy as a senior VP before the end of the year. But none of the three parties involved have yet commented on the matter.
Though of no consolation to Vancl, it is thought that all major Chinese IPOs for the rest of the year are unlikely to proceed owing to the volatile stock markets and the difficulty in raising funds.
Vancl Group comprises its own-brand fashion store Vancl.com, and a more open B2C platform at Vjia.com. Both those have grown in the past year to be China’s biggest fashion-only online store, with a two percent market share of the entire B2C e-commerce sector in China midway through this year.
[Source: Sina Tech news - article in Chinese]
