China Tudou hires banks for $100 mn plus IPO

SHANGHAI, CHINA: China's leading online video website Tudou has hired Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank for its initial public offering on the Nasdaq, with hopes to raise over $100 million, sources said on Monday.

Tudou is hoping to list on the Nasdaq in the first quarter, two sources with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters. The firm is hoping to raise between $100 million to $150 million.

Tudou, which is backed by venture capital firms such as IDG China, GGV Capital and General Catalyst, competes with Youku and Ku6 in China. The firm is similar to Google's YouTube and Hulu, streaming millions of online videos and original content daily and allowing users to share files.

More recently, Singapore's state investment firm Temasek invested $35 million in the company, whose name means potato in Mandarin, alluding to the image of a couch potato in front of the television.

Tudou had 16 per cent of China's online video market in the second quarter, behind Youku, which had 20 per cent, according to data from Analysys International.

"The firm is looking at the first quarter (for a listing)," said one source with knowledge of the deal.

Gary Wang, Tudou's chief executive, told Reuters last year that the firm's main source of revenue was from advertising and that it differentiates itself by producing its own content and chasing tie-ups with production houses.

Tudou lost money in the first half of the year, but made as much revenue in that time as it did in all of 2009. The fact that it still loses money makes it a relative misfit in the field of China's Internet firms, which usually wait until they become profitable before making public listings.

Youku is also pursuing a public listing as soon as the first quarter of next year, and has also hired investment banks, sources previously told Reuters.