Renren On Cusp of Winning IPO Race, Despite Latest Hurdle 人人网不顾险阻力求赢下IPO大战
In the brief but colorful race to market between China’s top two social networking sites, both often called the Facebook of China, early leader Renren seems determined to take the prize despite a number of scandals surrounding its bid. In the latest of those, the chairman of its auditing committee, a foreigner with bountiful experience in Chinese start-ups, has resigned due to an unrelated accounting scandal at another company, Longtop Financial (NYSE: LFT), where he is now CFO. (English article; Chinese article) The resignation follows other smaller scandals, including a downward revision of Renren’s new user numbers in the first quarter (previous post) and a lawsuit by rival Kaixin, now being heard by China’s high court, over a disputed domain name. (previous post) All the noise doesn’t seem to have deterred investors hungry for the latest China Internet play, with Renren actually raising the size of its offering to nearly $700 million from a previous $500 million due to strong demand. Barring any last-minute disasters, it does seem like Renren will win this race as it plans to make its IPO on Tuesday in New York. But even if it wins, look for plenty of quick profit taking after the debut and lots of volatility in Renren’s stock in the months ahead until all the issues are resolved.
Bottom line: Renren may win the race to market with rival Kaixin, but its stock will be very volatile in its first few months as it resolves a number of outstanding issues.
在中国的两家最大的社交网站——人人网和开心网竞相追求IPO的过程中，人人网看起来心意已决要赢得这场赛跑。人人网审计委员会主席德雷克·帕拉舒克，一个在中国初创企业拥有经验丰富的外国人，因其在Longtop金融科技公司担任首席财务官期间的一个不相干的会计丑闻，而宣布辞去在人人网的职务，成为困扰该网站的最新一波丑闻。此前还有一些小的丑闻，例如人人网下调一季度新用户数，开心网就争议域名状告人人网正在接受中国最高法院审理等等。所有这些，都没有打消投资者对中国最新一波互联网上市狂潮的胃口。因需求量巨大，人人网实际上将筹集资金规模从5亿美元扩大到7亿。人人网打算周二在纽约IPO，很可能会如愿以偿。但即使如此，未来几个月估计会有很多快速获利了结现象，股价也会大幅波动，直至所有问题都得到解决。
一句话：人人网可能会在IPO一役中胜过开心网，但其股价可能会在首次公开招股後的前几个月出现大幅波动。
Related postings 相关文章:
◙ Renren Admits to Population Inflation; More to Come?
◙ Kaixin Fights Back in Race With Renren to Market 人人、开心上市大PK：开心扳回一局
◙ Renren Takes Lead Over Kaixin With Blockbuster Filing 人人网：风风火火IPO 气势盖过开心
