China's Jingdong Mall says no plans for U.S. IPO now

SHANGHAI Feb 22 (Reuters) - Chinese online retailer Jingdong Mall has no plans for an initial public offering at the moment, a spokeswoman for the firm said on Wednesday, playing down speculation it was close to applying for a listing in the United States.

Jingdong Mall, which runs business-to-consumer website www.360buy.com, was reported by the South China Morning Post to be planning a Nasdaq listing as early as March.

"Currently, the company has no plans to list and will not be commenting on market rumours," said Chen Mengying, a Jingdong Mall spokeswoman.

Media reports on Monday quoted the firm's chief executive, Liu Qiangdong, as saying the firm does not plan to list before 2013.

Chen declined to confirm or deny Liu's comments and did not give more details.

Jingdong Mall competes with Taobao Mall and Dangdang Inc in the highly competitive business-to-consumer market. Jingdong, often compared to Amazon.com Inc, said in October it was planning to hire 20,000 staff this year to support the firm's rapid expansion.

In September last year, IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, reported that Jingdong Mall was planning to raise $4-$5 billion through an IPO in the United States.