Alibaba

(08-07-2014, 02:52 AM)d.o.g. Wrote:

(07-07-2014, 09:38 PM)opmi Wrote: Anyone use Grabtaxi in SG?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I do. Works quite well. Initially there were no taxis, now there's plenty, apparently 20,000 or something, so the biggest "fleet" in Singapore now.

I would like to share an interesting article on GrabTaxi...

Why GrabTaxi is giving Singapore’s largest taxi operator a run for its money

http://www.techinasia.com/grabtaxi-eat-comforts-lunch/

Similar service is also offered by GrabTaxi app, i.e. the GrabCar service. BTW, S$50 per trip on a four-seater car, likely a Mercedes Benz, regardless of distance, time travelled and ERP charges, is less than the airport premium limo service of S$55 per departure.

New service allows users to hire driver, car via mobile app

SINGAPORE — Customers can now hire a private driver and a premium car using their smartphone, with the launch of a new service by South-east Asia’s largest booking mobile application, GrabTaxi today (July 8).

Using the existing GrabTaxi mobile application, users can make the booking for a premium car and driver, with car options ranging from a four-seater Mercedes Benz to a 13-seater Toyota Hiace. For a four-seater car, the standard fare is S$50 regardless of distance, time travelled and ERP charges. However, if distance of the trip is shorter than 4km, it would be $38.

The introduction of this new service, GrabCar, is in view of the unmet demand during peak hours. GrabTaxi aims to fill this gap through GrabCar without taking away business from their core user base of taxis.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/new...mobile-app

Good podcast on the sharing economy. Companies mentioned: Uber, airbnb, monkeyparking

Check out this cool episode: https://itunes.apple.com/sg/podcast/econ...=315944266


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Alibaba IPO seeks to raise up to $24.3 bn

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/mobile/bu...48938.html

Hi Moderator,

Just realized I clicked wrongly. Pls assist to move to category "G". Thks.

(06-09-2014, 03:05 PM)Art or Science Wrote: Hi Moderator,

Just realized I clicked wrongly. Pls assist to move to category "G". Thks.

There is existing thread for Alibaba, thus I merged yours into the old thread.

Regards
Moderator

US retail investors don't know who is Alibaba yet...

Alibaba who? U.S. retail investors not that interested

When Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding revealed plans earlier this year to go public on a U.S. stock exchange, financial advisers like Bob Mecca in Hoffman Estate, Illinois braced themselves for a wave of frantic calls from retail investors wanting to get in on the action.

Alibaba, which sells more than Amazon.com Inc and EBay Inc combined, could raise over $21 billion in its IPO. It is often described as technology's hottest initial public offering since Facebook Inc’s 2012 debut, although initial pricing announced on Friday was less than many predicted.

Retail investors generally get only 10-20 percent of shares in big IPOs, and several advisers told Reuters they had expected a scramble from clients. But the phone has not been ringing off the hook.

“People are on Facebook, they know it, but no one has ever heard of Alibaba," said Mecca, who has $175 million in assets under management.

The number of client inquiries about the Alibaba IPO is around a quarter of what it was for Facebook at this stage of the process and about half of what it was for Twitter Inc, said Steve Quirk, senior vice president of the group serving active traders at discount broker TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.

Robert Christie, a spokesman for Alibaba, declined to comment, citing the company’s pre-IPO quiet period.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/business/alib...interested

Alibaba IPO to include 'friends and family' share program

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SEPTEMBER 06, 2014 2:15AM

Alibaba Group is planning to let employees and other people close to the Chinese e-commerce buy some shares in its impending initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said.

The kind of share program it is conducting, known informally as a "friends and family" plan, lets employees and others buy some shares at the IPO price, before the stock begins trading publicly. That IPO price is normally available only to professional investors and a limited number of individual investors, who buy into the deal in the hope that the stock rises once trading starts.

The program has been used in recent US listings of other Chinese companies, including messaging service Weibo and online shopping site JD.com earlier this year. General Motors also used one in its $US18 billion ($A19.2bn) IPO in 2010.

Such programs for employees and others close to the company were more popular for US companies during the dot.com boom of 1999-2000, as a way to potentially reward employees, key customers and others. But their use has broadly been on the decline since then. Some companies have concluded the plans are more trouble than they are worth, as buyers can end up disgruntled if shares decline.

Alibaba is nearing the launch of its potentially $US20bn-plus IPO. The final filing for the deal, which would include a price range for the shares, could come as soon as Friday, people familiar with the matter said. Alibaba currently plans to start pitching its shares to investors next week, beginning in New York, they said. Shares would begin trading the following week.

Meanwhile, Alibaba has been doling out specific assignments to the handful of banks it has tapped to run the deal. Credit Suisse will oversee the friends and family program, formally known as a directed share program, the people said.

Morgan Stanley, along with Credit Suisse, will be in charge of managing the so-called "lockup" agreement that dictates when pre-IPO shareholders will be able to sell once the stock starts trading, the people said.

Goldman Sachs Group nabbed the plum role of so-called stabilisation agent, overseeing the stock's early trading.

Alibaba has taken the unusual approach of appointing several banks--Credit Suisse, Deutsche, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley--as co-equal leads of the deal, rather than designating one or two banks as clear leads among a group of senior banks. Twitter and Facebook took the more traditional approach in their IPOs, tapping Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as lead banks, respectively. Citigroup also is working on the Alibaba deal.

It is not yet clear what bearing banks' specific roles will have on the fees they reap. Alibaba has tried to keep the lead banks on equal footing, and it may choose not to portion out extra fees for the jobs, people familiar with the matter said.

But the jobs do come with other potential benefits, such as prestige, trading commissions and a leg up on future business.

The role handling lockups, for example, could lead to more work. "Lock ups" are standard agreements that prevent insiders such as executives, employees and early investors from selling stock for 180 days after the deal. Banks that oversee lockups are allowed to release those holders from the lockup before the term ends, which may give them an edge in working with them on secondary stock offerings.

In the case of Alibaba, those sellers could include its two biggest current holders Yahoo and SoftBank, though both firms have said they plan to remain long-term investors in the company.

Morgan Stanley also will serve as the so-called billing and delivery agent that handles payments by investors for the shares they agree to buy in the offering, the people said.

Alibaba is planning on making about 5 per cent of its shares available in the friends-and-family program, people familiar with the matter said. The average placement in 2014 has been 4.7 per cent of a company's offering, according to Ipreo, a capital markets data and advisory firm. If Alibaba raises some $US20bn, that percentage would amount to around $US1bn set aside. GM's program was 5 per cent of its $US18bn offering.

"Friends and family" IPO programs are seen by some companies as a way to broaden their shareholder base and reward key people. So far in 2014, 18 per cent of US IPOs have had them, the lowest share in a decade. In 2004, two-thirds of IPOs featured them.

Alibaba IPO up to $US66 a share

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SEPTEMBER 06, 2014 6:15AM

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding is expected to set the price range of its initial public offering at $US60 to $US66 a share, according to a person familiar with the matter, valuing the company at about $US160 billion ($A171.1bn) at the midpoint of the range.

It isn't unusual for companies seeking to go public to set an initial price range that proves to be below where the offering eventually prices. With both Facebook and Twitter, the final price on the deal was higher than the initial range.

The Chinese e-commerce company is expected to launch the deal this month and plans to list under the symbol "BABA" on the New York Stock Exchange.

The setting of a price will be followed by a nearly two-week "roadshow" that will involve meeting with big groups of investors, as well as one-on-one pitches, in Asia, Europe and the US.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Friday that Alibaba is planning to let employees and other people close to the company to buy some shares in its impending offering.

Meanwhile, the company has been doling out specific assignments to the handful of banks it has tapped to run the deal. Credit Suisse Group will oversee the friends and family program, formally known as a directed share program, the people said.

Morgan Stanley, along with Credit Suisse, will be in charge of managing the so-called "lockup" agreement that dictates when pre-IPO shareholders will be able to sell once the stock starts trading, the people said.

Goldman Sachs Group nabbed the plum role of so-called stabilization agent, overseeing the stock's early trading.

Alibaba generates its sales only by matching buyers and sellers, unlike US online retail giant Amazon.com, which also owns warehouses of goods and sells directly to customers.

Alibaba, which is based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, operates the Taobao and Tmall online marketplaces, which have hundreds of millions of users in China. Transactions handled by Taobao and Tmall last year amounted to $US248bn, which is greater than comparable figures for Amazon and eBay combined.

Alibaba last week reported a surge in revenue and earnings for its latest quarter, driven in part by increased activity on mobile devices, though its profit margin narrowed.

US is a self-contained world

But, the harsh truth is that the influence of china corporations is mostly limited within their own country.
I suppose most Americans have not ordered anything from taobao.

Singaporeans are the most savvy ones. They ordered from both taobao and amazon..haha.

(07-09-2014, 09:54 PM)CityFarmer Wrote: US retail investors don't know who is Alibaba yet...

Alibaba who? U.S. retail investors not that interested

When Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding revealed plans earlier this year to go public on a U.S. stock exchange, financial advisers like Bob Mecca in Hoffman Estate, Illinois braced themselves for a wave of frantic calls from retail investors wanting to get in on the action.

Alibaba, which sells more than Amazon.com Inc and EBay Inc combined, could raise over $21 billion in its IPO. It is often described as technology's hottest initial public offering since Facebook Inc’s 2012 debut, although initial pricing announced on Friday was less than many predicted.

Retail investors generally get only 10-20 percent of shares in big IPOs, and several advisers told Reuters they had expected a scramble from clients. But the phone has not been ringing off the hook.

“People are on Facebook, they know it, but no one has ever heard of Alibaba," said Mecca, who has $175 million in assets under management.

The number of client inquiries about the Alibaba IPO is around a quarter of what it was for Facebook at this stage of the process and about half of what it was for Twitter Inc, said Steve Quirk, senior vice president of the group serving active traders at discount broker TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.

Robert Christie, a spokesman for Alibaba, declined to comment, citing the company’s pre-IPO quiet period.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/business/alib...interested