Alibaba

[Behappyalways]

Mark Mobius: Stay away from Alibaba

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/17/investin...d=HP_River

[specuvestor]

^^ Most if not all chinese internet companies are VIE. And most of us investing in china companies listed in US or S-chips should know that recourse is an illusion

End of day it is how much we trust the management and their track record. Are they here to build their personal wealth or higher aspirations? Are the executive and board sufficiently independent? What is the major shareholders' power and vested interest?

I think there will be a lot of pent up chinese demand on debut but I am inclined to think that this is a good company but bad stock in a dotcom-ish mini bubble

[CityFarmer]

Alibaba raises IPO price range
AP SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 8:00AM

Alibaba now plans to raise up to $US25.03 billion ($A27.08 billion) in its upcoming IPO, making what was expected to be the biggest stock market debut even bigger.

The Chinese e-commerce company says it plans to sell 368.1 million shares at $US66 to $US68 apiece, according to a regulatory filing. Previously it had set the range for $US60 to $US66 apiece.

Alibaba has emerged as a hot commodity because of its e-commerce bazaar, a shopping magnet for businesses and consumers alike as China's economy steadily grows. The company's network of sites includes Taobao, Tmall, and AliExpress, as well as Alibaba.

Alibaba has been meeting with potential investors over the past week, and demand spurred the increase. Alibaba is expected to start trading later this week under the ticker 'BABA' on the NYSE.

The final result is confirmed

Alibaba sets IPO share price, to raise US$25b
19 Sep 2014 05:55
[NEW YORK] Chinese online retail giant Alibaba priced its stock at US$68 on Thursday, setting in motion a record-breaking public offering of up to US$25 billion.

The company, set to begin trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, priced at the top of the range of US$66-$68 per share announced earlier this week, according to documents filed with US regulators.
...
Source: Business Times Breaking News

[greengiraffe]

Details of Alibaba IPO trickle out
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES SEPTEMBER 20, 2014 1:15AM

Investors lucky enough to get shares in Alibaba Group's initial public offering Thursday are likely looking at big gains once the stock opens for trading Friday.

Over 1,700 investment firms world-wide put in orders for Alibaba shares, according to people familiar with the matter. About half of them got no stock, and many others got less than 5 per cent of what they asked for, the people said.

The investors who got stock paid $US68 per share. Friday, early indications were the stock would open between $US82 to $US85, suggesting at least a 21 per cent gain at the open if the price sticks.

Some 25 investment firms were sold about half of the stock in the IPO, people familiar with the deal said. That's unusually concentrated for a deal of this size, said a banker familiar with the process.

That heavy concentration could impact its first-day gains as bankers get set to open trading New York Stock Exchange on Friday morning.

Other signs pointed to buyers for the stock at elevated prices. Trading on derivatives markets run by IG Markets, a UK brokerage firm, suggested some were betting on the company's market value reaching $US233 billion ($A259.8bn), a nearly 40 per cent jump from where it priced on Thursday, at a value of $US168bn.

A key metric will be trading volume at the opening price. Heavy volume could signal wide support for the price, while a lower figure could indicate that the stock price will be volatile--and could quickly give up gains.

The stock could be under pressure if big investment firms, satisfied with their allocations, now have less incentive to buy, and smaller investors opt to simply flip their small holdings rather than try to build larger positions.

Or, it could be boosted if the investors who got small allocations opt to buy more on the open market to build sizable positions for their portfolio, and if institutions continue to seek even more stock.

Even big institutions didn't receive all they asked for, with some receiving less than a quarter of their requests, people familiar with their thinking said.

In addition, many small individual retail investors were seeking to get their hands on Alibaba shares. More than half of the orders placed for shares Friday morning via TD Ameritrade were for Alibaba, according to the company. However, retail tends to make up just a small part of the overall size of the market, especially in the context of a company with more than $US20bn worth of stock now available in the market.

Some investors weren't concerned about how things would go in early trading.

"It's not really about the paper profits on the first day, it's about what the company can deliver operationally over the next five years," said Tom Slater, a partner at Baillie Gifford & Co, a UK-based asset management firm with over $US170bn in assets under management, an Alibaba shareholder.

"What we're looking for is the ability to grow their presence in China beyond the transactional platform, and to become a fundamental underpinning of the consumer economy," Mr Slater said. "You need to take stock again two or three years from now."

[ValueBeliever]

I guess Mark Mobius will have eat its words if the share start at 90 and trend higher?

Growth in ecommerce in China is the largest in the world. Now that BABA is public traded it foot print is going to grow.

At 92-93 pre-trade opening - 92.70cts. At 68 its already 20% of S&P retail components.

Mark may be right though, all the major investor are dumping at 68, and Jack Ma said its a long term 1000yr history. History indeed...more to come!

[greengiraffe]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102016998

That's it? Some hedge funds snubbed in Alibaba IPO allocation
John Jannarone | @jannarone
6 Hours Ago
CNBC.com
36
COMMENTSJoin the Discussion
Many hedge funds that placed orders for shares in Alibaba's initial public offering received woefully small allocations, highlighting the ultra-selective process that favored investors who already have a close relationship with the company.

"It's pathetic," one hedge fund manager said Friday morning, a few hours before the Chinese e-commerce giant was expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange. That fund requested $200 million in Alibaba shares and received less than $1 million worth, or one half of 1 percent of the amount requested, the manager said.

Some funds that requested smaller amounts also received tiny fractions of the quantities they requested. One fund that requested several million dollars in shares received just 1,000 shares, worth $68,000 based on the IPO price of $68 set Thursday evening.

Read MoreAlibaba? Here's who is really going public today
Trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during Alibaba IPO, September 19, 2014.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during Alibaba IPO, September 19, 2014.
"We didn't feel like we got screwed," the second fund manager said, adding that his fund had attended the investor lunch but never had one-on-one meetings with Alibaba's senior management.

Alibaba's nearly $22 billion IPO is the largest in history and follows the high-profile debut of Facebook two years ago. Facebook ran into a trading glitch during its first session, and the stock traded down in the following months.

Alibaba is keen to avoid such a fiasco and has deliberately sought investors who are likely to hold the stock for the long term. A large percentage of Alibaba shares were given to mutual funds, and many investors who wanted to participate didn't receive any shares at all.

Read MoreNext up after Alibaba: Biggest bank IPO ever
A person familiar with the matter said that Alibaba's management and the underwriting banks spent nine hours yesterday going through investor orders. Investors with the longest relationship with the company tended to receive the best treatment, the person said. "If they were early believers they were treated differently than if they were new to the company," he said.

Not all hedge funds were disappointed with their allocations. "Some [hedge funds] were happy," said another manager whose fund participated in the IPO. "Management had a big say in the allocations," he said. "If there was a connection to the company they did fine."

[opmi]

The usual KP: remember to ask at next transpac egm/agm the opportunity cost of selling out alibaba stake years ago.

[Behappyalways]

Jim Chanos: "Quick little thought about Alibaba: everyone forgets that he was a thief."

^^

[greengiraffe]

800 investment funds miss Alibaba boat at New York float
DANNY FORTSON AND SIMON DUKE THE TIMES SEPTEMBER 22, 2014 12:00AM

MORE than 800 investment funds were frozen out of the Alibaba float as a small group of investors scooped over half the shares in the Chinese e-commerce giant.

Alibaba sold nearly $US22 billion ($24.6bn) worth of stock on Wall Street in the largest US float of all time. But bankers handling the listing said they could have sold nearly 12 times that amount after receiving $US250bn of orders.

A group of 25 institutions, ­including some of the company’s early backers and creditors, ­secured about 50 per cent of the shares on offer. A total of 1800 funds put in bids to buy stock, but the rampant demand meant that nearly half received nothing.

One investor told The Sunday Times that he had placed a $US20 million order, but ended up with just $US200,000 of Alibaba stock. The meagre allocations handed out to some investors reflects Wall Street’s desperation to grab a slice of the fast-growing web retailer. Founded by the former English teacher Jack Ma in his Hangzhou flat 15 years ago, the company dominates China’s booming internet industry and is rapidly expanding abroad.

Shares in Alibaba soared 38 per cent on their debut on Friday, giving the company a market value of $US230bn. The company is now worth more than Amazon, Facebook, JPMorgan and Procter & ­Gamble.

Alibaba’s bankers managed to overcome concerns over governance and the company’s unusual corporate structure. Following the float, Mr Ma and 27 other senior staff would retain the right to choose a majority of the board of directors.

Because of Beijing’s foreign investment rules, investors do not own Alibaba’s Chinese assets directly, but through a series of licencing contracts with a ­Cayman Islands offshoot.

The float marks the end of US ascendancy in the web economy, and could usher in fresh turmoil for Yahoo, which owns a large chunk of Alibaba. The Silicon Valley internet giant is expected to come under renewed attack from activist investors over its plan to splurge billions of dollars on acquisitions.

After tax, Yahoo would reap more than $US5bn after selling a substantial portion of its holding in Alibaba. The track record of Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer is considered to have been patchy since she took the reins two years ago and she is likely to face calls to return the cash to investors rather than the company pursue further deals.

THE SUNDAY TIMES

[ValueBeliever]

Is alibaba market share of ecommerce for real? If it is, its just too big to be able to grow further? If its false how much will the share drop? If competition gets worse in China, where is the data to support growth.

I think Alibaba market maker at some stage will stop supporting the share and it will definitely be at the mercy of its own making. I also think Alibaba is a very successful business because of its linkage to China government. My guess is that it will be dump once Western skeptics start to question the nos!!

WSJ said Alibaba is looking to grow in Western country, that itself is a red flag!