This offering of 500 million new shares raised
more than $11 billion in Hong Kong’s biggest
listing since 2010 — a rare boost for the city
after months of political unrest.
Charles Li, executive director and chief executive
of Hong Kong Stock Exchanges praised the
company for carrying out the listing.
“I am very thankful that Alibaba, after five years
of traveling afar, finally came home. I’m also
grateful that they choose to come despite the
difficulties, despite the challenges that we are
going through here in Hong Kong,” Li said.
The closing price Monday for Alibaba’s New York-
traded shares was $190.45 per share. Each of the
U.S. shares is the equivalent of eight Hong Kong
shares, which would put the price in Hong Kong
terms at 186.30 Hong Kong dollars per share.
“The largest listing of the year comes at a
worrying time for Hong Kong but everything
appears to have gone very smoothly,” Craig
Erlam of OANDA said in a commentary.
“This was an opportunity to show that, despite
the protests that have brought Hong Kong to a
standstill and wreaked havoc on the economy, it’s
business as usual for the stock exchange,” he said.
Alibaba’s 55-year-old founder, Jack Ma, is China’s
richest entrepreneur with a net worth of $39
billion, according to the Hurun Report, which
tracks the country’s wealthy.
The company’s share code, 9988, is a homonym
in Chinese for “eternal prosperity.”
It already has a significant cash pile of more
than $30 billion, but is tapping the momentum
from recent strong earnings, including the $38.4
billion it reported in “Singles Day” sales on Nov.
11, up 26% from a year earlier.