Alibaba Raises IPO Price Projection
17 September 2014 14:10 WIB
TEMPO.CO, New York - Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans to raise its price range to US$66 to US$ 68 per share for its initial public offering (IPO) in Wall Street. According to the latest documents submitted to the New York Stock Exchange, Alibaba said that prices were raised because of strong demand from investors at the previous price. The company, however, did not increase the number of shares it would sell.
Alibaba initially announced that they would sell 320.1 million shares to the public for US$60 to US$66 per share. With the new price range, Alibaba could raise some US$21.8 billion. There is potential for the proceeds to reach more than US$25 billion if underwriters exercise the option to buy stock to meet demand.
If the IPO is a success, Alibaba could record the world's largest IPO, overtaking Agricultural Bank of China Ltd.'s record of US$22.1 billion IPO proceeds in 2011. Channel News Asia quoted AFP and said that the new price range would leave Alibaba with a market value of US$163 billion to US$168 billion.
Alibaba is set to hold its offering on Thursday and begin trading on Friday on the NYSE under the code BABA. Last week, the company began a series of investor roadshows to a number of countries.
CHANNEL NEWS ASIA | REUTERS | SETIAWAN ADIWIJAYA