Alibaba picks more banks for HK listing this month

BEIJING: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd added Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley to the sales force of its Hong Kong listing, and invited several Chinese banks to do the same, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Chinese e-commerce giant planned to start taking investor orders on Friday, after its Singles’ Day sale, and price the offering on Nov 20, said the people.

The deal could raise as much as US$15 billion (RM61.95 billion), they added.

At least four state-owned Chinese investment banks — ABC International Holdings Ltd, CCB International Holdings Ltd, ICBC International Holdings Ltd and Bank of China International Ltd — had been invited to take on junior roles, they said, adding that the deadline for the banks to reply was today.

Alibaba had planned to list in Hong Kong as early as over the summer before pro-democracy protests rocked the financial hub, while trade tensions between Washington and Beijing clouded the market’s outlook.

Credit Suisse Group AG and China International Capital Corp were leading Alibaba’s share sale, Bloomberg has reported.

It could put the capital to work investing in new technologies such as artificial intelligence or fast-expanding affiliates such as Ant Financial.

A successful share sale could also help finance a costly war of subsidies with Meituan Dianping in food delivery and travel, and divert investor cash from rivals like Meituan and WeChat-operator Tencent Holdings Ltd.