Sohu.com Inc, China's second-largest Internet portal, said it has filed a registration statement for the initial public offering of its subsidiary, Changyou.com, to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company would offer a total of 7.5 million American Depository Shares between a price range from US$14 to US$16, according to its statement yesterday. The total proceeds would be around US$104.6 million assuming an initial price of US$15 per ADS. Sohu would hold about 70.7 percent of the total outstanding equity interest in Changyou if the IPO is approved.

The online game division of Sohu was hived off into a subsidiary of Sohu.com in July 2008. It contributed US$201.8 million of total revenue last year, 4.8 times that of the previous year.

Sohu forecast in February its revenue for the first quarter this year to be between US$111.5 million and US$115.5 million.

(Shanghai Daily March 19, 2009)