B2B e-commerce company Alibaba.com Limited commenced trading today in Hong Kong.
Alibaba.com's share price closed at HK$39.50, 192.6% higher than the Offer Price of HK$13.50. The offering raised HK$13.1 billion in gross proceeds before offering expenses, including proceeds from the Over-allotment Option which was exercised after the market closed, making it the largest Internet IPO in Asia and the second largest globally.
The debut of Alibaba's shares was witnessed by the company's management team, 18 founders and other guests at the listing ceremony.
"We are pleased to welcome investors from Hong Kong and around the world to join us in building a world-class e-commerce company," said Jack Ma, non-executive chairman of the company and chairman and chief executive officer of Alibaba Group. "Alibaba.com's IPO ushers in a new era of e-commerce development and we look forward to pioneering an e-commerce ecosystem that benefits businesses in China and around the world."
Alibaba.com and its parent company Alibaba Group initially offered a total of 858,901,000 shares under the Global Offering, of which 227,356,500 shares were offered by the Company and 631,544,500 shares were offered by Alibaba Group. An additional 113,678,000 shares were sold by Alibaba Group upon exercise by the International Underwriters of their Over-Allotment Option.
The eight Cornerstone Investors which participated in the Global Offering included Yahoo Inc., AIG Global Investment Corporation (Asia) Limited, Foxconn (Far East) Limited, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited, Cisco Systems International B.V., and entities affiliated with Peter Kwong Ching Woo (Chairman of The Wharf (Holdings) Limited), the Kwok family (controlling shareholders of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited) and Mr. Kuok Hock Nien.
The total cornerstone investment was HK$2.1 billion and all Cornerstone Investors agreed to a lock-up period of 24 months from the date of listing.