Tencent Holdings-backed JD.com, a Chinese e-commerce website, is looking to raise US$1.7 billion from an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States.

The company plans to offer 93.7 million American depository receipts priced between US $16 to US $18 per share apiece, as shown in a regulatory filing Friday. The e-commerce website would also sell shares in private placements to Huang River Investment Ltd, a business arm of Tencent Holdings.

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The net proceeds of the IPO were estimated to be around US $1.2 billion. The money raised from the IPO would be used for corporate affairs including expansion and acquisition of other businesses.

The IPO of JD.com came after bigger rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. filed for a US IPO this week, seeking to raise a hefty US $20 billion. A Bloomberg data showed that Chinese IPOs in the United States have increased five times from 2012.

Asia's biggest Internet company Tencent holds a 15 percent stake in the e-commerce website. Tencent said in a statement dated March 9 that it would transfer its e-commerce arm into JD.com. Meanwhile, sources familiar with the matter said that Tencent assigned a valuation that could hit more than US $20 billion this quarter to JD.com.

JD.com has recorded US $11.5 billion revenue in 2013. The company has 47.3 million active subscribers based on the filing. Meanwhile, the company has reduced its losses to US $8 million from US $50 million in 2012. A record filing from the company also showed that electronic products and home appliances made up 64 percent of the JD's gross merchandise volume in 2013.

The stockholders of the company included CEO Richard Qiangdong Liu and Tiger Global Management LLC. Liu is putting on sale 13.9 million shares while Tiger Global has offered 13.4 million shares, respectively.

he IPO would be managed by Bank of America Corp and UBS AG. JD.com intends debut of the Nasdaw under the trading symbol JD.

TagsJD.com, IPO, Nasdaq, Tencent Holdings