Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has plans to sell the company’s shares which could be one of the largest share sales this year. The company has plans to raise more than $11 billion by selling its shares to the people in Hong Kong.
The Chinese tech giant was approved by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. for the listing application. Alibaba is going to sell as many as 500 million shares to the people of Hong Kong. If it materializes the chances of which are looking quite good it will be the largest equity offering to the people in the city since 2010.
It could be possible that the shares are put on offer to the public at a discounted price but still, the valuation is close to $ 11.7 million according to experts. The Chinese tech giant which is listed on the New York stock exchange closed at $186.97 on Tuesday. The shares fell a further 2.4% on Wednesday.
Asia’s biggest company is looking forward to one of the largest share offering globally this year in a city that is engulfed in pro-democracy violent protests. It wants to start the trading on Hong Kong stock exchange as early as November 26.
With the funds obtained through share sale, the company wants to improve operational efficiency and drive technical innovation. Another 75 million shares could be sold by the underwriters with the help of the ‘greenshoe’ option.
Although Alibaba had declared that the New York stock exchange will continue to remain its primary listing venue overseas.
Alibaba’s listing should come as a welcome surprise to the people of Hong Kong that has lost many good companies from being listed on the country’s stock exchange and lost them to the US. Efforts were made to lure Alibaba to enlist itself on the city’s stock exchange and it went all the way to the top management with chief-executive Carrie Lam pushing the company’s founder Jack Ma to consider listing in the city’s stock exchange.
