Alibaba and the $15 billion question----
Hong Kong’s political unrest is posing a dilemma for Alibaba
Group Holding Ltd on the timing of
its planned $15 billion listing in the city, with sources saying China’s
biggest e-commerce company is now considering several timetables.
New York-listed Alibaba was most likely to launch the offer -
potentially the world’s biggest of the year -
as early as the third quarter,
sources have said, and late August, after its first-quarter earnings, was
widely viewed as the most likely window.
In preparation for the giant offer, bankers advising other large
listings in Hong Kong have been careful to avoid planning their launches around
that period, fearing that a clash of timing would crowd out their offerings.
But not a word was mentioned by Alibaba on the Hong Kong listing
when it released estimate-beating earnings on Thursday nor did the offer come
up in the hour-long discussion with analysts after the results.
Two sources involved in the deal and one other briefed on
Alibaba’s discussions described the company’s thinking on the deal as “fluid”
and said Alibaba was considering several timetables.
Alibaba declined to comment.
The Hong Kong listing deal was estimated at up to $20 billion,
but is more likely, according to sources close to the deal, to raise between
$10-$15 billion.
The listing was always expected to be a complex affair because
of China’s tight control of cross-border share trading, but Hong Kong’s unrest
has taken the complexity several notches higher.
More than 10 weeks of confrontations between police and
pro-democracy protesters have plunged Hong Kong into its worst crisis since it
returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and presented President Xi Jinping with his
biggest popular challenge since taking power in 2012.
- Reuters
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