Alibaba boosts price range IPO

In a filing late on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. raised the expected price range on its initial public offering (IPO) from the prior $60 to $66 to a new range of $66 to $68. The number of shares on offer remains the same at 320.1 mln.

At the top of the new price range, the company would raise gross proceeds of $21.8 bln. If the underwriters exercise their option on an additional 48 mln shares, total proceeds would total $25.03 bln. The fully diluted market cap of the firm would be $175.5 bln, and Alibaba would claim an enterprise value of $166.5 bln if the stock prices at $68 a share.

The order books for the IPO could begin closing Tuesday, and there were reports last week that the stock would price on Wednesday and begin trading on Thursday. That has not been confirmed by the company, and the original schedule of pricing on Thursday with trading to begin on Friday is still the expected timetable.

At the company’s roadshow stop in Singapore on Tuesday, one banker is quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying that he would have liked to “get some shares for our private clients, but most of [the shares] seem to have been taken up by institutions.” The roadshow is scheduled to travel next to London, before concluding on Thursday in New York.

Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are the joint bookrunners on the deal. The stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BABA.