SouFun Preparing for IPO

SouFun Holdings, Ltd., the company behind top Chinese classifieds portal soufun.com.cn, is preparing for an initial public offering planned for next year by majority stakeholder Telstra.

Telstra, an Australian telecommunications giant, bought its 51 percent stake in SouFun for US$254 million in August 2006. According to the Wall Street Journal, Telstra plans to sell down its shareholding as part of the IPO, but is yet to decide where SouFun will list its stock.

The Australian speculates that a float of more than US$1 billion is possible.

soufun.com.cn lists real estate amongst its classifieds, and came third in propertyportalwatch.com’s list of the top 25 property portals for revenue generation.

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