Chinese ecommerce and daily deals site 55tuan has been planning a US IPO for a while, and thanks to SEC filings, we now know the precise date. $60 million in 55tuan stock will go on sale on the NASDAQ on February 25, just after the end of China’s Spring Festival holiday. The company has listed in English as Wowo Ltd. and its stock will be sold under the code “WOWO.” Its IPO is backed by US-based capital firm Axiom.
Now might seem a strange time for a Chinese group-buying site to IPO. The country’s daily deals market very visibly exploded in 2011, and then just as visibly fell apart in 2012. But 55tuan bucked the trend, and in 2012 as other group buying sites were dying, it became the first one in the country to turn a profit.
Since then it has remained one of the country’s top five daily deals sites, and expanded to become more of a local ecommerce merchant platform, allowing local merchants to sell products directly via its online shop. According to its SEC filings, as of Q3 2014 the company boasted more than 34 million subscribers and covered 150 Chinese cities.
Clearly, 55tuan feels it’s strong enough for an IPO, but how American investors will react is still a mystery. Chinese tech stocks have been on a bit of a wild ride over the past couple of months, and even Alibaba‘s much-vaunted IPO has given way to a stock nosedive after its spat with the government raised concerns of regulatory troubles. 55tuan will be hoping that it can avoid the same fate.
(h/t to Techweb)
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