Chinese online retailer aims to go public in US

LightInTheBox Holding Co., Ltd, a global online retail company in China, is planning to go public in the U.S., which is expected to lead another wave of IPOs among Chinese companies following hard-hit market confidence for more than a year amid worries over financial problems and corporate structures.

The Chinese online retail company which has applied for the listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol "LITB", is planning to raise USD 86.25million, said the company in its F-1 file submitted to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Thursday.

Underwriters for the initial offering include Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated and Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

LITB is the number one Chinese retail website in terms of revenue generated from customers outside of China in 2012, according to a report by iResearch, an independent market research firm.

The global online retail company delivers a wide selection of lifestyle products to customers around the world, through websites including www. Lightinthebox.com and www.miniinthebox.com, available in 17 languages.

LITB said it had more than 205,000 product listings as of December 31, 2012 and added an average of more than 17,000 new product listings each month for the last year.

Net revenue of the company grew from 6.3million in 2008 to 200 million in 2012 while number of its customers increased from about 36,000 to approximately 2.5 million.

Global online retail sales are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 17.7% from $521 billion in 2012 to $849 billion in 2015, according to Euromonitor International.

"Online retail penetration remains low in major markets around the world, but has and is expected to continue to increase over time," said LITB.