Feeding an appetite in the West for Chinese Internet company stocks, a new initial public offering is ready to ignite.

Under the symbol GAME, China-based online entertainment firm Shanda Games plans to start trading on Nasdaq on Friday in what is planned to be the largest initial public offering in the United States this year.

Priced at USD12.50 per share, the company plans to raise USD1.044 billion. The company is a spin-off of its parent company Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited. The parent will continue to hold 71% in Shanda Games and an ominous 96% of voting rights in the newly-minted IPO.

Shanda Games claims to have hit revenues of USD322 million and profit of USD98 for the half year ended June 30, 2009.

Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited's consolidated net revenues for the second quarter ended June 30, 2009, increased 47.7% year-over-year and 11.8% quarter-over-quarter to CNY1.237 billion. Operating income increased 53.0% year-over-year and 12.7% quarter-over-quarter to CNY513.4 million.

Other Chinese online games are not doing as well, perhaps a sign that smooth revenues may be difficult to attain in China. Shanda's rival The9 posted a poor showing for the first half of this year.

Owing to its loss of the World of Warcrafts game to rival Netease.com, The9 had a CNY79.2 million net loss in the second quarter ended June 30, 2009. The struggling online game company announced its unaudited financial results for the quarters ended March 31, and June 30, 2009. Net revenues for the first quarter of 2009 increased by 4% quarter-over-quarter and decreased by 3% year-over-year to CNY426.2 million. Net loss for the first quarter was CNY46.8 million, a 70% decrease from net loss of CNY158.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, and a decrease in earnings of CNY122.4 million compared with the net income of CNY75.6 million in the first quarter of 2008.

Related Links:

• http://www.miit.gov.cn

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1. By nathan – September 26, 2009 at 4:48 am

   Horrible IPO! The damn stock dropped 14%!!!! Too much was floated to the masses causing all sorts of problems. Bad bad bad bad!!

2. By stockman – September 26, 2009 at 10:03 am

   Hold it for a while and do not worry because it shall rise again.

   2009/2010 is the age of the asian dragon and Chinese stocks like this may take a beating but sentiment for gaming in the PRC is high. Hold it my friend and you will see it rise.

3. By Hammertime – September 26, 2009 at 6:22 pm

   I tried to warn you people about the 9th. There revenue has droped so much that the company is in trouble. BUYER BEWARE!

4. By startled investor – September 27, 2009 at 9:46 am

   what is the chinese word for 'disastrous failure'? look that up in the dictionary and you can see a picture of shanda games.

5. By Kevin Tam – November 6, 2009 at 11:49 am

   If the PRC govt just started telling foreign companies they can not be game operators in China, how come Shanda Games can exist? If they are are a stock bought and sold overseas then how come they are not considered a foreign company? How does that work??

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