Weibo seeks valuation of up to $3.9 bn in US share sale

Weibo Corp, China's biggest microblogging outlet, is seeking as much as $380 million in an initial public offering, joining a slew of Chinese Internet companies looking to list newly issued shares in the US.

The company plans to offer 20 million shares for $17 to $19 apiece, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. At the top of the offering range the company would have a market value of about $3.9 billion, the filing shows. Weibo, based in Beijing, plans to use some of the proceeds from the offering to repay loans to parent Sina Corp.

In the first quarter, China-based companies announced more than $2.5 billion of US IPOs, data compiled by Bloomberg show. JD.com Inc, the Chinese retailing website that just received an investment from Asia's largest Internet company Tencent Holdings Ltd, has filed to raise $1.5 billion and Leju Holdings Ltd, an online real-estate company, said yesterday that it is seeking as much as $212 million in an IPO.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's biggest e-commerce company, agreed in April to buy an 18 per cent stake in Weibo for $586 million, and plans to exercise an option to raise that stake to 30 per cent, according to the filing. Alibaba is also preparing to go public in the US, the company has said. Weibo's proceeds from the IPO and Alibaba's investment will be $377.2 million, according to the filing. Sina will have 80 per cent of the voting power after the sale, while Alibaba will have 15 per cent.

At $3.9 billion Weibo is asking for a value of about 21 times 2013 sales of $188.3 million. Revenue surged to that amount, from $65.9 million last year, the filing shows.