China's Taomee to debut on NYSE

China's children entertainment company Taomee Holding will trade on NYSE on June 9.

China's children entertainment company Taomee Holding is scheduled to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on June 9 after clearing regulatory hurdles.

Taomee plans to issue 7.1875 million American Depositary Receipts at a price range of US$9 to US$11. It is expected to raise up to US$71.88 million if priced at the middle of this range.

Taomee, based in Shanghai, was founded in October 2007 by Wang Haibing, Cheng Yunpeng and Wei Zhen, all former employees of China's internet giant Tencent. The company develops SNS sites, books, and cartoon films for kids. Taomee's sites have more than 200 million registered users currently and had 27.3 million active users last quarter.

In 2009, Taomee got a US$5 million capital injection from Qiming Weichuang Venture Capital Management. Previous investors in the firm include Zeng Liqing, founder of Tencent, and Sina Vice President Wang Bing.

According to statistics issued by iResearch in 2010, four of six most popular children's social network websites in China were owned by Taomee.

According to its disclosures to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Taomee began turning a profit in 2009. It posted net profits of US$1.318 million and US$ 21.575 million on revenues of US$7.066 million and US$35.973 million in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Taomee said its profits more than doubled and sales revenue increased 90 percent to US$12.4 million in the first quarter of this year.