(Reuters) - JD.com, China's second-largest e-commerce company behind Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, said on Thursday it plans to raise up to $1.5 billion in an initial public offering in the United States.
JD.com, which said in December it expected to top 100 billion yuan ($16.51 billion) in annual sales for the first time, is riding on China's booming e-commerce industry as internet penetration surges in the world's most populous nation.
Business-to-consumer online sales in China are expected to surpass $180 billion this year, according to market research firm eMarketer.
JD.com has managed in the past six years to secure $2.23 billion from foreign investors, including the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding Co.
Alibaba, which controls nearly 80 percent of China's internet shopping market, has been planning to list its shares but has struggled to reach an agreement with Hong Kong regulators over its proposed IPO, expected to be worth around $15 billion.
JD.Com's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission did not reveal how many American Depositary Shares the company planned to sell, their expected price or the exchange on which it would list them.
The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filing is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.
JD.com listed BofA Merrill Lynch and UBS Securities LLC as lead underwriters to the offering. (http://r.reuters.com/myc56v)
(Reporting By Neha Dimri in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
