China's Vipshop falls in U.S. debut

Shares of Chinese on-line retailer Vipshop fell more than 11 percent in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

Guangzhou-based Vipshop, the first Chinese Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the U.S. stock market in more than seven months, priced its 11-million-share IPO at 6.5 dollars, below its indicated range of between 8.5 dollars and 10.5 dollars.

Shares of Vipshop tumbled in late New York trading as investors were still cautious toward the internet start-up with robust growth but weak profits.

The debut of Vipshop drew attention at a time when U.S. listed Chinese companies suffered significant value shrink due to an unfavorable market environment and alleged fraud cases and accounting scandals.

"We began to prepare for the IPO last year, and had to revise issuing prices lower due to bad market environment, but we still decided to go as planned because the company was in a quite good shape and really well prepared," said Eric Shen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vipshop.

"We don't care about day-to-day fluctuation of our stock prices and what we focus on is how to maximize the company's longtime value," he added.

According to Shen, Vipshop is China's leading on-line discount retailer whose business model relies on offering name brand fashion goods via on-line "flash sales," or deeply discounted offers valid for a limited time. Now the company has worked with more than 1,900 brands across the world.

"With the great potential demand in second-tier and third- tires cities, we see a very broad and prosperous market in China and a huge chance for us as an on-line discount retailer," said Shen.