Renren.com, China's largest social- networking service, is seeking to capitalize on strengthening demand for the nation's Internet stocks with a U.S. initial public offering.
It is preparing an IPO of about $500 million US dollars this year. The banks handling the IPO are Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG, according to the insiders, who declined to be identified because the matter isn't public. The offering could come by June.
Renren.com has more than 160 million registered users. The site could use the IPO proceeds to woo more visitors as it competes with local rivals Tencent and Baidu.
At Renren, advertising has more than doubled each year since the site started selling space in 2008.
Renren -- a name that means "everyone" in Chinese, traces its roots back to 2005, when graduates of Tsinghua University in Beijing founded Xiaonei.com, or "Inside School."
In 2006, Xiaonei was acquired by Oak Pacific Interactive and renamed Renren in 2009.
