China group-buying firm LaShou withdraws U.S. IPO

China's e-commerce company LaShou Group Inc. on Wednesday said it has filed with the U.S. securities regulator to withdraw its plan for an initial public offering.

Niu Lihua, vice president of LaShou, the company that runs the group-buying site lashou.com, said the withdrawal is the best decision for the company, staff and shareholders both at present and in the future.

The Beijing-based company will only focus on operations management, Niu added.

LaShou filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late last October to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market. It planned to sell 5.36 million American Depositary Shares to raise as much as 80 million U.S. dollars.

At that time, LaShou said that the proceeds would mainly be used on marketing, sales network, logistics infrastructure and research and development (R&D).

Several other Chinese companies, including Xunlei and China Auto Rental, have also withdrawn their IPO plans in the U.S. due to the weak U.S. capital market and European debt crisis.