Alibaba Gets Approval For Hong Kong IPO

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA is going ahead with its planned Hong Kong IPO, CNBC reported on Wednesday.

What Happened

The Chinese e-commerce giant got the required regulatory approval from the city’s authorities on Tuesday, people close to the matter told CNBC.

Alibaba is expecting to raise $13 billion in the initial public offering, CNBC said. Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post put the number between $10 billion and $15 billion.

The e-commerce giant is planning to sell 500 million new ordinary shares in the IPO, according to the South China Morning Post. 

487.5 million of these shares have been reserved for international markets, with the rest available to the Hong Kong public.

The company has reserved an additional 75 million shares as an overallotment option for the IPO’s underwriters.

What’s Next

According to Reuters, which suggested a similar timeline last week, Alibaba had initially planned to go public in Hong Kong in August but shelved the idea due to the financial and political instability created by ongoing protests.

The listing is likely to happen by the end of this month, multiple reports suggest.

Price Action

Alibaba’s shares closed 2.40% lower at $182.48 on Wednesday. The shares were further 0.37% down in after-hours trading.

The weak market performance followed Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma’s comments that the $38 billion Singles’ Day sales were lower than what the company had expected.