Following the Nasdaq listing of China-based online retailer Mecox Lane in late October, Dangdang , the top-ranked Chinese online book retailer, has recently launched its US$312m IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.
 
"The successful listing of Dangdang and Mecox Lane may lead to more IPOs of China's E-commerce retailers in the coming year,” said David Roberts,  who led the O'Melveny & Myers team advising underwriters Credit Suisse Securities and Morgan Stanley in the Dangdang IPO.
 

360buy.com, Dangang's primary competitor, has revealed that the company currently does not yet have a plan to list, but will do so in the future.

Private equity lawyers also expect more investment to be channelled into the online retail sector. “Online retailing is growing at a phenomenal rate in China and this deal highlights the significant interest in this sector from investors. We expect to see this trend continue in 2011,” said Roger Peng, partner of Paul Hastings, who recently advised on the US$100m investment into online clothing retailer Vancl by Ceyuan Ventures, Tiger Global Management, IDG Capital Partners, and SAIF Partners.

O'Melveny & Myers, with approximately 900 lawyers in 14 offices worldwide, established its first office in China in the mid-nineties, and has office in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.  ALB

Related stories:

• China's IPO boom:no flash in the pan (9 February 2010) 
• Youku's Nasdaq IPO latest in string of Internet deals (15 December 2010)