Taobao denies IPO rumor
Shanghai. September 10. INTERFAX-CHINA - China's largest online retail platform, Taobao.com, will not launch an initial public offering in 2010, contrary to domestic media reports, a Taobao employee told Interfax on Sept. 10.
"We do not have any plans to file for an IPO at that time," Tao Ran, Taobao.com's public relations director, said in response to CNETNews.com.cn's recent report that the online retail giant would likely list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) during the the first quarter of 2010.
Taobao's parent company, Alibaba Group, listed its business-to-business (B2B) subsidiary, Alibaba.com Ltd., on the HKEx in November 2007.
In October 2008, Alibaba Group merged Taobao and its online advertisement trading platform, Alimama, and created a network consisting of 80 million registered users, over 1 million vendors, third-party payment service providers, logistics and verification support and 400,000 Web publishers.
Alibaba Group also announced that it will inject RMB 5 billion ($733.5 million) in capital into Taobao over the next five years.
Taobao generated in excess of RMB 80 billion ($11.71 billion) in total transaction value in the first half of 2009. The company expects that transaction value for the entire year will be double the amount recorded in 2008, which was RMB 99.96 billion ($14.63 billion), according to Tao.
-HJL