Autohome surges in trading debut

Initial Public Offering activity involving Chinese companies continues to pick up

Shares of Autohome Inc, an online provider of Chinese automotive information, soared 77 percent in first trading on the New York Stock Exchange, following an initial public offering that raised $132.6 million.

The IPO is the latest sign that after a series of accounting scandals which dried up US listings of Chinese companies, the number of Chinese companies going public on the US is picking up.

The Beijing-based company said it sold 7.8 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $17 apiece, above an expected price range of $14-$16 a share.

Trading under the ticker symbol ATHM, the shares opened at $30.16 and closed at $30.17.

Managers of the offering received an option to sell up an additional 1.2 million ADS to meet demand.

Through its two websites, autohome.com.cn and che168.com, Autohome provides online information, listings and reviews for Chinese automotive consumers.

Market research firm iResearch ranked Autohome.com.cn first among Chinese automotive websites in terms of average daily unique visitors, average daily time spent per user and average daily page views for the nine months ended Sept 30. It accounted for roughly 46 percent of the total time that China's Internet users spent viewing online automotive information, according to iResearch.

The IPO follows offerings by Sungy Mobile Ltd, a mobile Internet services company, online sports-lottery operator 500.com, at the end of November, "Chinese Craigslist" 58.com and Baidu-backed Qunar at the beginning of November, and online retailer LightInTheBox in June.

Despite Autohome's soaring share price, CEO Qin Zhi said the company's value deserves the greatest attention.

"The share price may not [always] represent the value of a listed company," Qin said. "The value is gradually found and recognized by the capital market over time."

Qin said the company is poised to benefit from China's status as the world's largest passenger car market. The number of new passenger cars sold in China is expected to rise about 13.3 percent to 20.7 million by 2015, according to industry research firm LMC Automotive.

"With the increasing vehicle ownership in China, the after-sale service market and secondhand car market will definitely grow robustly," Qin said. He said it is important for Autohome to adjust to the market change.

Autohome, with net income increasing 96.7 percent to$54.5 million for the nine months ended Sept 30over the same period last year,is a key asset in Asia for its controlling owner Telstra, an Australian telecom and media company.

The newly released shares will dilute Telstra's holding in the company from 71.5 percent to 66.2 percent.

Wan Li contributed to this story.

(China Daily USA 12/12/2013 page2)