Ooops!
One of China’s top daily deals site, Lashou, prides itself on selling attractive deals to its users. But its biggest ever deal – a bid to list on NASDAQ – couldn’t find many enthusiastic takers, and now the company has withdrawn its IPO filing at the US SEC.
Lashou has instead made a new filing that is a request to withdraw its earlier submission – find it here – and which effectively cancels all plans to head towards an IPO in which it aimed to raise $80 million. The short document asks for consent to cancel the first “application on grounds that the withdrawal of the Registration Statements is consistent with the public interest and protection of investors.”
Indeed, with a black mark next to the names of many Chinese young tech stocks since the Longtop scandal of last summer, and with ongoing concerns about revenue models and transparent accounting – see the Citron attacks on Qihoo (NYSE:QIHU) – Lashou always faced a battle to get an underwriter to sell it to investors.
Lashou has settled itself in as one of China’s top daily deals sites, taking 8.9 percent market share in a very fragmented industry in China. But that stat is down from late last year, when Lashou commanded 12.7 percent market share and looked set to become the nation’s largest group buy site by revenue. But these days it’s in fourth place.
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