JD.com, the online retailer backed by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, filed to raise $1.5 billion in the first Chinese initial public offering in the U.S. since a judge suspended accounting firms.
The IPO would be the biggest in the U.S. by a Chinese Internet company, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Baidu Inc., China’s largest search engine, raised $122 million when listing in New York in April 2005. The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index had slumped 6.2 percent after a U.S. administrative judge ruled Jan. 22 to ban Chinese affiliates of the four biggest accounting firms from conducting audits on the Asian nation’s companies. The measure rebounded from a five-month low yesterday.
