Alibaba's $13 Billion Hong Kong Share Sale Already Multiple Times Subscribed
19 November 2019 - 4:50PM
Dow Jones News
By Serena Ng
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will stop collecting orders early for
its roughly $13 billion Hong Kong stock sale due to strong investor
demand for its shares, according to people familiar with the
matter.
The Chinese e-commerce giant plans to close the books on the
institutional portion of the sale at noon EST on Tuesday instead of
4 p.m. during the New York day, the people said. Institutional
investors in Asia can submit orders for the offering until 4 p.m.
Hong Kong time Tuesday, while investors in Europe can do so until 4
p.m. London time.
Alibaba last week kicked off one of the largest share sales
globally this year ahead of a secondary listing in Hong Kong on
Nov. 26. The offering is already multiple times subscribed, the
people said. A small part of the Hong Kong share sale has been set
aside for individual investors, and the final proportion will
depend on the volume of orders received.
The company earlier said it expected to determine the price of
the Hong Kong shares on or around Nov. 20, based on the closing
price of its New York-listed American Depositary Shares on Tuesday.
Last week banks underwriting the deal estimated it could be worth
about $11.7 billion in total. That could increase to more than $13
billion if they exercise an option to buy more shares after trading
begins.
Alibaba's U.S. shares closed slightly lower at $184.61 apiece on
the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, giving the company a market
capitalization of about $482 billion. Each American Depositary
Share effectively represents eight of Alibaba's Hong Kong shares.
The latter could be priced at a slight discount to the U.S. shares,
as is the market convention for follow-on stock offerings.
Alibaba's listing plans have moved ahead despite a week of
violent confrontations between police and antigovernment protesters
in the semi-autonomous city. The Hangzhou-based company first went
public in New York in 2014 after raising $25 billion in what
remains the world's largest initial public offering.
Write to Serena Ng at serena.ng@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 19, 2019 00:35 ET (05:35 GMT)
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