E-House (China) Holdings Ltd, China’s largest real estate agency, may raise US$150 million in a US initial public offering), according to a filing wit

E-House (China) Holdings Ltd, China’s largest real estate agency, may raise US$150 million in a US initial public offering), according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Shanghai-based company, which operates in 20 Chinese cities through more than 1,800 salespeople, is raising capital to open new stores, upgrade its information system, increase marketing and fund possible acquisitions.

The filing on Tuesday did not disclose the number of American depositary receipts to be sold or their pricing.

New property sales in China increased by an average of 38 per cent a year between 2001 and 2005 as the government encouraged home ownership.

The floor area of new properties sold in the country grew 25 per cent a year in the same period, according to E-House’s filing.

The seven-year-old company sold 54 million sq ft of new properties with a combined value of almost 42 billion yuan (S$8.4 billion) between 2001 and 2006, the document said.

E-House, China’s largest real estate agency and consulting company by the number of transactions, the value of deals, floor area sold and sales network, had US$56 million of sales last year, a 45 per cent increase from 2005, the document said. It derived 81.6per cent of that from primary agency services, 6.9 per cent from secondary brokerage services and 11.5 per cent from consulting and information services. Net income jumped 62per cent to US$18.1 million, or $0.27 per share, the share sale document said.

Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch & Co are arranging the share sale. E-House plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, the document said.

China Renaissance Capital Investment LP, a Credit Suisse fund venture co-founded by Mark Qiu, former chief financial officer of CNOOC Ltd, invested in E-House before the IPO.

Source: The Business Times, 12 July 2007