(RTTNews) - Shanghai, China-based China Real Estate Information Corp. (CRIC: News ) said Friday that it priced its initial public offering of 18 million American depositary shares, each representing one ordinary share, at $12.00 per ADS. The ADSs will commence trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market effective October 16.

China Real Estate Information, formerly CRIC Holdings Ltd., is a subsidiary of China-based E-House Holdings Ltd. (EJ: News ), a provider of integrated online and offline real estate information and consulting services in China. For the six months ended June 30, 2009, China Real Estate Information's net income was $11.00 million on revenues of $31.20 million.

Upon closing of the IPO, China Real Estate Information will acquired the online real estate business of SINA Corp.(SINA: News ). E-House will hold a majority 51.01% stake in China Real Estate Information, followed by SINA.

The joint book runners for the offering are Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and UBS AG.

To cover over-allotments, if any, underwriters have been granted a 30-day option to purchase up to 2.7 million additional ADSs.
Ordinary shares outstanding immediately after this offering is expected to be 92.55 million, and upon the acquisition of SINA's online real estate business, it is expected to be at 140.22 million.

The estimated net proceeds from the offering is around $209.7 million, of which, about $30 million is to fund capital expenditure, including around $20 million investment in information and operational systems and nearly $20 million to expand sales and marketing efforts. The residual proceeds are expected to be deployed into general corporate purposes, including funding possible acquisitions of complementary businesses.

Thursday, EJ closed regular trading at $21.49 on the NYSE and SINA closed at $39.06 on the Nasdaq.

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by RTT Staff Writer

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