Shanda Interactive Entertainment hopes to shrug off the troubles of other recent mainland initial public offerings by raising US$200 million through a listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The mainland's largest operator of online games plans to spend US$65 million to develop or acquire new titles and $25 million to enhance its operational platform, according to the company's preliminary prospectus. It will also spend about $60 million to acquire or invest in related businesses.
The public offer comes at a time when other mainland share sales, such as those of Tom Online and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, have flopped.
Investors, however, are likely to be drawn to Shanda's rapid growth. It had 272.9 million yuan in earnings last year, up 95.9 per cent from 2002, while revenue was 83.9 per cent higher at 600 million yuan.
Goldman Sachs is leading the share sale and the other underwriters are Bear Stearns, CLSA/CIBC World Markets, HSBC and Piper Jaffray.
Shanda aims to launch four new multi-player, role-playing games this year as part of efforts to continue growing revenue while reducing dependence on its key titles - Legend of Mir 2 and World of Legend - which accounted for 87.5 per cent of revenue in the first quarter.