Saturday, September 20, 2014

DTN News - CHINA NEWS: Alibaba Prices Shares At $68 In Largest US IPO Ever

DTN News - CHINA NEWS: Alibaba Prices Shares At $68 In Largest US IPO Ever
• The $21.8 billion raised is to be split among the Chinese e-commerce behemoth, its executives and early investors
• Alibaba is expected to begin trading at the New York Stock Exchange Friday morning
• A $68 per share IPO will have raised $21.77 billion and valued the company at $167.62 billion.
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Forbes
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 20, 2014: (NEW YORK) - Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group priced shares on Thursday for its upcoming initial public offering at $68 each, in what is one of the largest IPO for a U.S.-listed company.
The deal raised $21.8 billion, which is to be split among the Chinese e-commerce behemoth, its executives and early investors.

The total comes close to the previous record of $22 billion raised by Agricultural Bank of China.

Alibaba, which not only dominates the market in its home country but also has designs to expand aggressively abroad, is expected to begin trading at the New York Stock Exchange Friday morning.

If Alibaba's offering plans have not changed, a $68 per share IPO will have raised $21.77 billion and valued the company at $167.62 billion.

The meeting of underwriters and Alibaba executives took place at Citigroup, sources told CNBC.

The closed door meeting lasted about 45 minutes, and the discussion was about the company's future, not the IPO prices, sources told CNBC.

Slated to be the largest IPO in world history, Alibaba's offering has been compared to Facebook's, which was mired by technological and filing hiccups that saw the price initially fall.

The firm was expected to price within a range of $66 to $68, with advisors recommending $68.

The IPO has been anticipated for months, if not years, as investors have been attracted to the company's market dominance in China and its impressive profitability. The deal also carries significant symbolic value: A Chinese company achieving a historic IPO by listing its shares in the U.S, reports WSJ.

Alibaba's IPO price values the whole company at $168 billion, making it instantly one of the largest listed in the U.S. and giving it a larger market capitalization than Amazon, which is at about $150 billion.

The stock is poised to start trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BABA. Alibaba decided to list its shares in New York instead of Hong Kong because regulations in the Asian hub prevent the company's founding partners from maintaining control of the board.

Alibaba, founded in 1999 by now-Executive Chairman Jack Ma, has thrived on the boom in e-commerce in China, the world's most populous nation. According to recent readings, Alibaba controls 80 percent of China's e-commerce market. The company's Taobao and Tmall marketplaces handled $248 billion in online transactions last year, which is more than Amazon and eBay had combined, reports WSJ.

The company's momentum has continued. Last month, Alibaba posted a 46 percent jump in revenue for its most recent quarter, helped along by an increase in revenue and transactions derived from mobile users. The company also is far more profitable than many of its American Internet counterparts, generating 43 percent operating profit margins in the second quarter. In comparison, Amazon had a 0 percent operating margin.

Ma has pushed his company to expand into other segments, making more than a dozen acquisitions already this year.

Recently, it bought a stake in online video-site operator Youku Tudou and a 50 percent stake in a professional soccer team. Investors who attended a recent Alibaba presentation told The Wall Street Journal that Ma said the company wants to be a "zoo that houses many animals rather than a farm which just has one animal."

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*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Forbes
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*Photograph: IPF (International Pool of Friends) + DTN News / otherwise source stated
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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