Qunar boosts estimated IPO price range to $12 to $14 an ADS
Qunar Cayman Islands Ltd. has increased the expected price range of its initial public offering of 11.1 million American depositary shares, now projecting the shares to price between $12 and $14 a piece.
Qunar, a unit of Chinese search-engine company Baidu Inc. (BIDU, K3SD.SG), filed plans for an IPO in September and said it expected to use 30% of proceeds to invest in technology, infrastructure and product development efforts; about 20% to expand the company’s sales and marketing efforts; and the remaining amount for general corporate purposes.
The company, which operates China’s top-ranked travel search engine–Qunar.com–two weeks ago estimated the offering to price at $9.50 to $11.50 an ADS.
The IPO would be one of the biggest listings by a Chinese company in the U.S. since 2011, when concerns over accounting frauds at U.S.-listed Chinese firms doused interested in Chinese companies.
Baidu became Qunar’s largest shareholder in 2011, when it invested $306 million in the company, which provides a search engine for airline, train, hotel and tour packages, and offers group-buying deals and user discussion forums on its website.
Qunar has applied to have its ADS listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol QUNR.