JD.com Plans for $1.7 Billion US IPO

JD.com, Inc.—also known as Jingdong or 360Buy—is planning to raise up to $1.7 billion in its US initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ exchange, according to a May 9 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is China’s largest e-retailer after rival Alibaba.

JD.com’s chief executive officer first announced the company’s interest in an IPO in May 2011. Since then, JD.com has received $2.23 billion from investors such as Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Co. JD.com expressed interest in a $2 billion IPO earlier this year, but did not disclose where or when it would list.

News of JD.com’s IPO filing comes just one week after Alibaba released details about its much-anticipated New York IPO that could raise up to $20 billion.

JD.com holds only 6.8 percent of China’s e-commerce market next to Alibaba’s 84 percent, but it has challenged its larger rival by forming a strategic partnership with Tencent Holdings Ltd., Asia’s largest Internet company. The partnership allows JD.com to promote its e-commerce services on Tencent’s WeChat, a social networking service that has more than 270 million active users.