Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba.com Ltd has set its shares at
the upper end of the offer price over the weekend, helping the firm
reach its goal of raising HK$11.6 billion (US$1.49 billion) from
the float in Hong Kong.
The firm, based in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang
Province, priced its shares at HK$13.50 each due to heavy demand
for the 859 million shares it sold in its initial public offering,
according to people close to Alibaba who asked for anonymity before
a public announcement is made.
The IPO price is 55 times its forecast earnings for next year,
above the 34 times price-to-earnings ratio of its closest rival
Global Sources Ltd, a business-to-business portal which is listed
on Nasdaq.
Alibaba, which runs the most popular B2B portal in China,
boosted its business by matching Chinese suppliers and overseas
buyers and predicted profit this year may triple, attracting
investors to its IPO.
It increased its offer price by more than 10 percent last week
for the retail subscription, which started on Tuesday and ended on
Friday. The retail subscriptions drew HK$450 billion in orders, a
historic record high among all IPOs on the bourse.
The company and its parent, Alibaba.com Corp, are also seeking
an over-allotment option to sell additional 113.7 million existing
shares to raise a total of HK$13.1 billion.
Sales of Alibaba.com Ltd, which generated 1.36 billion yuan
(US$179 million) last year, are set to reach 3.13 billion yuan next
year, according to Goldman Sachs, which manages its stock sale
together with Morgan Stanley.
It dominated 69 percent of online business-to-business trading
in terms of transaction value in the second quarter, Analysys
International, a Beijing-based IT consulting firm, said.
Alibaba's shares will start trading on November 6 in Hong
Kong.
(Shanghai Daily October 29, 2007)
