Chinese Real Estate Service Leju Debuts on NYSE

Leju (NYSE:LEJU), once a wholly-owned subsidiary of real estate service E-House (NYSE:EJ) and former property channel of Sina, got listed on the New York Stock Exchange for overall $100 million of funding this Thursday, the same day of Sina Weio’s debut on Nasdaq Capital Market. The company has filed for an US IPO this March.

Leju sought to raise as much as $194 million by selling 17.70 million shares for $10-$12 each, but only saw demand through underwriters for 11.50 million shares at the low end of the offer at $10 apiece.

Leju shares opened slightly higher at $10.80 and faded to below the initial offering price later. But the shares closed 18.6% higher at $11.86 per share on the first day of trading, sending the company’s total valuation to $1.42 billion.

According to the prospectus, the company booked $335 million of revenue in 2013, nearly doubling the figure as compared with $171 million one year earlier. The capital will be used in market exploration and construction of technical infrastructures, according to the company.

Chinese Internet giant Tencent acquired 15% of the fully diluted shares of Leju with $180 million in mid-March. Moreover, the two companies has inked strategic cooperation program to jointly develop software and tools dedicated for mobile ecommerce solutions for real estate industry. They also planned to explore additional opportunities for potential cooperation by leveraging Tencent’s social communications platform such as WeChat, and/or other Tencent internet properties.

image credit: Sina