By Ross Kelly
SYDNEY--Australia's Seek Ltd. (SEK.AU) said it is readying its
Chinese online jobs business Zhaopin for an initial public offering
in New York, adding to the boom in new U.S. listings by Asian tech
giants headed by Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba.
Seek said it filed a registration statement for Zhaopin with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of the planned IPO,
which would see it keep a majority in a business that is benefiting
from an influx of Chinese moving to cities to look for work.
China's policy makers are embracing urbanization as a way to
help boost now slowing economic growth and shift away from a
reliance on investment and exports.
Seek paid US$132.8 million in February last year to increase its
stake in Zhaopin to 78.2% from 55.5%, giving the unit an implied
value of US$585 million at the time. It expects Zhaopin to become
the world's largest online jobs market, as Chinese shift away from
traditional jobseeking methods that include newspaper classified
adverts to find work via the internet.
In the six months through December, Zhaopin increased the number
of job ads on its site by 10% to just over 2 million as more
small-to-medium-sized Chinese enterprises used the internet to hunt
for new workers.
U.S. listings by companies with large Chinese operations are on
the rise. Alibaba--the Chinese marketplace, search engine and bank
all in one--is due to list this week and complete one of the
largest IPOs in U.S. history.
Last year, eight Chinese companies raised more than US$10
million each in U.S. IPOs, four times the number in 2012.
Companies can generally gain publicity and credibility among
customers in China with a U.S. listing, giving their businesses an
edge over rivals, Australian companies including Seek and telecom
operator Telstra Corp. (TLS.AU) have said.
Melbourne-based Seek, which has a market value of 5.75 billion
Australian dollars (US$5.34 billion), hasn't disclosed the likely
value of Zhaopin's IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, which is
being managed by Credit Suisse and UBS.
Seek has been increasing its bets on Asia, recently buying out
minority investors in Malaysian employment business Jobstreet Corp.
(0058.KU) in a deal valuing the business at A$524 million.
Its latest move comes after Telstra's successful listing of two
Internet-based Chinese businesses in as many years. Telstra floated
online car-trading site Autohome Inc. on the New York Stock
Exchange in December, raising US$153 million.
In 2011, Telstra listed real-estate website SouFun Holdings Ltd.
(SFUN) on the Nasdaq.
According to Seek's first-half results release in February,
Zhaopin grew operating earnings by 17% on year A$139.4 million.
Write to Ross Kelly at ross.kelly@wsj.com
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