China’s largest job site Liepin seeks US$400 million in Hong Kong float

Wise Talent Information Technology, which operates China’s largest job recruitment site Liepin, is seeking to raise as much as HK$3.12 billion (US$400 million) in Hong Kong – the second biggest IPO by a unicorn company this year after Ping An Good Doctor’s US$1.1 billion listing in April.

Wise Talent, backed by venture capital firm Matrix Partners China, plans to sell 88 million shares at an indicative price range of HK$28.5 to HK$35.5, it said on Friday.

The retail tranche – 10 per cent of the total offer size – will hit the market from Tuesday to Friday next week and it will start trading on June 29 on Hong Kong’s main board.

“Chinese leaders always say talent is the country’s foremost resource, so companies all over the country want to upgrade their talent,” Rick Dai Kebin, chairman, CEO and founder of Wise Talent, told a press conference in Hong Kong on Friday.

He said that since a lot of overseas highly-skilled Chinese are gradually returning to China for employment and using our platform, so there is a big demand in the market. “We want to take advantage of this opportunity and the appetite for high-end talent,” adding that the IPO was well-timed because of the rapid growth in Chinese tech start-ups and innovation.

Liepin, launched in 2011, is China’s largest job recruitment site by revenue. Its database included 248,600 companies, 38.9 million professionals and 101,800 headhunters in 2017.