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)