The shares of AUTOHOME INC ADR EACH REPR 1 ORD (NYSE:ATHM), the leading online automotive information provider in China, surged more than 67% to $28.40 per share during its initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday. The stock reached as high as $31.37 a share shortly after the opening of the trading today.
Autohome IPO goes well
Autohome Inc (NYSE:ATHM) initially priced its shares in the range of $14 to $16 per share, but eventually raised it to $17 each. The Chinese company expects to raise $132.9 million from offering 7.8 million shares assuming that its underwriters will not exercise their option to purchase additional American Depositary Shares (ADS). Each ADS is equivalent to one Class A ordinary share of the company.
The underwriters of Autohome Inc (NYSE:ATHM) has the option to purchase up to an aggregate of 1,173,000 shares at public offering price within 30 days from the date of its final prospectus.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc and Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC. served as book runners. Oppenheimer and Piper Jaffray co-managed the public offering of the Chinese online automotive information provider.
History of Autohome
AUTOHOME INC ADR EACH REPR 1 ORD (NYSE:ATHM) was established in 2004. It operates autohome.com.cn and che168.com. The company primarily makes its money from advertising, particularly from automakers and dealers in China. It obtains stable revenue from dealers who pay monthly subscription fee for its services. Autohome generates around $195 million annual revenue and $96 million operating profit. Its sales grew by 67% for the past nine months that ended September this year.
Last month, another Chinese company, 500.com Ltd (NYSE:WBAI), a sports lottery business went public last month and offered 5.8 million shares at a price of $13 each. The stock is currently trading around $25 per share. It seems that investors are bullish on Chinese equities.
