Jingdong Mall, the mainland's second-largest online retailer, may find it hard to achieve a valuation target for its listing in the United States given the company's loss-making performance and uncertain market environment.
Jingdong, also known as 360buy, was poised for a listing that aimed to raise up to US$5 billion in the US, Reuters reported yesterday. Sources said the company had hoped to achieve a US$6 billion stock market valuation.
'It might be hard for them to achieve their valuation target,' said Feng Lin, an analyst at the China E-business Research Centre.
'Jingdong has been expanding very aggressively. But it's still burning money and not making any profit. Their capital chain has been very tight despite several rounds of fundraising.'
Liu Qiangdong, the founder and chief executive of Jingdong, denied the company would start the listing process next week.
'I will be staying in the middle of nowhere in the Taklimakan Desert [in Xinjiang] next week,' Liu said in response to the market speculation.