Alibaba planning Hong Kong listing

HONG KONG/NEW YORK: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is eyeing a listing in Hong Kong as early as this month to raise up to $US15 billion ($NZ23 billion), after political unrest put the move on ice earlier this year, people familiar with the matter said this week.

Alibaba’s listing would boost Hong Kong’s status as a major capital markets hub. After topping global rankings last year for funds raised through initial public offerings (IPOs), the city’s bourse fell behind the New York

Stock Exchange and Nasdaq this year amid months of antigovernment protests that have roiled the Asian financial hub.

The float would be the world’s biggest equity deal of the year if the IPO for stateowned oil company Saudi Aramco gets delayed to next year. Aramco’s IPO could be worth over $US20 billion.

Alibaba planned to seek listing approval from Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd shortly after the Chinese ecommerce giant’s online retail frenzy Singles Day on November 11, and might list its shares towards the end of November or in early December, the sources said.

The company expected to be in a position to forgo socalled premarketing meetings, where it meets with institutional investors before a deal launch, given its size and that many investors were already familiar with the company, the sources said. It is hoping to raise $US10 billion$US15 billion through the listing, Reuters has reported.

The sources cautioned the plans were still subject to market conditions and requested anonymity as the matter was private.

A spokeswoman for Alibaba, which is already listed in New York, declined to comment. The company had been preparing to launch the listing in late August, but delayed it because of the lack of financial and political stability in Hong Kong after months of frequently violent antigovernment demonstrations.

All the same, IPO activity has picked up since September as typically the last four months of the year are the busiest in Hong Kong for public floats.

Such a large offering from Alibaba, potentially the biggest followon share sale in seven years, according to Refinitiv data, could also have implications for liquidity in Hong Kong’s financial system and the closely watched Hong Kong interbank offered rate (HIBOR). This is particularly the case given investors in the Hong Kong market often borrow funds in anticipation of large share sales. — Reuters