Another wave of Chinese IPOs will test investor appetite this week, including Jiayuan.com (DATE), the leading online dating site in China with 44% market share (in terms of user spend) and over 40 million registered users. The company plans to raise $78 million by offering 7.1 million ADSs (6% insider) at a price range of $10 to $12. BofA Merrill Lynch and Citi are the lead managers on the deal, which is one of 10 scheduled to price on this week's US IPO calendar. Jiayuan.com expects to price on Tuesday after the market close and list on the NASDAQ on Wednesday under the ticker symbol DATE.
Jiayuan.com, which is designed to let China's rapidly growing population of urban singles to meet, interact and form long-term relationships, was created by CEO Haiyan Gong in her college dorm room in 2003. With backing from current Chairman and New Oriental Education & Technology Group co-founder Yongqiang Qian (23% post-IPO stake) and Shanghai-based venture firm Qiming Venture Partners (17%), the company has quickly expanded its user base and is now the leading market player in terms of user spend, number of unique monthly visits, average page views per visit and average time spent on dating sites. The popular site reported 40.2 million registered users, 4.7 million average monthly active users and 0.9 million average monthly paying users as of the end of the 1Q11.
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