Adding another financial milestone to the already fairly long list that it has, Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, has raised a landmark $12.9Bn in its massively anticipated public listing in Hong Kong. According to Reuters data, this is the largest share sale in the city in nine years and a world record for a cross-border secondary share sale.
In a statement issued by the company, Alibaba said that it had priced the shares at HK$176 ($22.49) each, a discount of 2.9% to its New York closing price. This translated to a minimum raise of HK$88 billion ($11.3 billion) — 8 being a number associated with good fortunes in Chinese culture. Well Alibaba’s fortunes have clearly been more than just good!
Alibaba shares closed in New York on Tuesday at $185.25.
Small investors in Hong Kong have benefited immensely from the listing. Sources have told Reuters, that Alibaba’s IPO was oversubscribed by as much as 40 times, making it the heaviest over-subscription rate for any multi-billion dollar share sale in Hong Kong in more than four years.
The sheer money put in collectively by Hong Kong’s retail investors is staggering, totaling to $11 Billion. Retail investors will now take 10% of the deal, up from the 2.5% they were originally allotted, since Hong Kong applies the ‘clawback’ system, wherein it allows retail investors to have a greater share than originally allowed, if their over-subscription values are high.
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