Zhaopin.com job site gets ready for IPO

Chinese online jobs business Zhaopin Ltd filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, and it plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. [Photo/dfic.cn]

Australian online job ad company Seek Ltd is preparing its Chinese online jobs business Zhaopin Ltd for an initial public offering in New York, betting it will gain an edge over its rivals in the world's second-largest economy.

Zhaopin Ltd filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, and it plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. But it didn't disclose how many shares it planned to sell or the expected listing price.

"A US listing significantly increases the credibility of a company, because it requires the company to be more transparent with its business activities and financial figures," said James Darlington, head of Asia for Antal Business Consulting Co Ltd, a United Kingdom-based recruitment consulting firm.

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Seek is expecting Zhaopin to become the world's largest online job market, as more and more Chinese jobhunters shift away from the traditional methods and toward the Internet.

Zhaopin.com ranked as China's second-largest online recruitment service provider by revenue in 2013, according to the market research firm iResearch Public Data.

Over the past six months, Zhaopin has increased its number of employers advertising on its site by 30 percent as more small and medium-sized companies in China recognize the Internet as a major platform for finding talented employees, Seek's international director, Jason Lenga, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying.

Within the next five years, China probably will become the world's largest economy, attracting more people and companies to work and operate businesses in the country, and creating huge demand for jobseeking services, Darlington said.

The Chinese employment market remains strong. There has been a growth of 12 percent in companies currently hiring, the highest global figure found in this year's survey, according to the Antal Global Snapshot, a survey of hiring and firing trends in key employment markets, which was released in January.

Zhaopin.com reported net revenue of 848 million yuan ($136.8 million) in the fiscal year ended last June 30, in comparison with 773 million yuan registered in the previous fiscal year, according to its preliminary prospectus.

Online recruitment services generated revenue of 750 million yuan during the period, and with other business sectors included, such as campus recruitment and other human resourcerelated services, a year-on-year increase was seen in every sector.

Zhaopin had developed a registered user base of 74.1 million by Dec 31, up 18.7 percent compared with a year earlier. Zhaopin said it planned to use the proceeds from the IPO to repay debt, expand into more markets, develop new products and upgrade its websites.

Melbourne-based Seek paid $132.8 million in February last year to increase its stake in Zhaopin from 56 percent to 78 percent on an undiluted basis, through buying a stake from Macquarie Group and others.

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