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IPO Alibaba - Softbank hält 29,3%

Alibaba.com increases IPO range

By Bei Hu and John Liu Bloomberg News

Published: October 22, 2007

HONG KONG: Alibaba.com is expected to raise as much as 11.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $1.5 billion, after increasing the price of stock in the biggest initial public offering by a Chinese Internet company, people familiar with the matter said.

The operator of the largest trading Web site in China for companies and its corporate parent, also named Alibaba.com, will sell shares for 12 dollars to 13.50 dollars apiece in Hong Kong, about 13 percent more than the initial range marketed to investors, said the people, declining to be identified before a public statement.

Orders for shares from institutional investors exceeded supply within an hour after Alibaba started taking applications, the people said. Alibaba lured buyers to the IPO in Hong Kong, where the benchmark Hang Seng index has gained 44 percent this year, with a forecast for profit to almost triple this year, as more Chinese companies buy and sell products over the Internet.

"China and Internet are a great combination," said Wong Soon Tong of UOB Asset Management in Singapore. "There is a lot of interest in China and in Internet stocks right now." Wong said UOB may subscribe to Alibaba shares.

The company and its parent plan to sell a combined 858.9 million shares, or a 17 percent stake, according to a document distributed Oct. 15 to international institutions. The shares were initially marketed at 10 dollars to 12 dollars.

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Cisco Systems, the largest maker of computer-networking equipment, will buy $20 million worth of shares in the IPO, the people said. And Yahoo is purchasing $100 million of Alibaba shares, according to the earlier document.

Foxconn, a unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry, will acquire $35 million worth of Alibaba.com shares in the IPO, the people said. This brings the total amount of shares reserved for corporate investors to almost $300 million.

Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are arranging the sale. An Alibaba spokeswoman, Christina Splinder, declined to comment, as did spokespeople for the three investment banks.

In its share sale document, Alibaba forecast profit of at least 622 million yuan, $83 million, this year, up from 219.9 million yuan last year. The company is based in Hangzhou in eastern China.

"More and more Chinese companies are beginning to see the Internet as a way to help grow their businesses, which will in turn help make Alibaba's services more popular," said Edward Yu, the chief executive officer of research company Analysys International.

Yahoo owns a 39 percent stake in Alibaba.com after swapping $1 billion and its China unit for the holding in 2005. Softbank, the third-biggest mobile phone carrier in Japan, owns a 29.3 percent stake in Alibaba.

At the high end of the new price range the company would be valued at $8.8 billion, or 54 times estimated 2008 profit before stock-based compensation, the people said. The price-earnings multiple will rise to as much as 66 times after such expenses are deducted, according to the people.

Baidu.com, which owns China's most popular Web search site, is trading at 79 times estimated 2008 earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Tencent, the biggest online chat service provider in China, is valued at 50 times.

Global Sources, the closest rival of Alibaba, trades at about 33 times estimated 2008 earnings. Alibaba had 69 percent of the Chinese electronic-commerce market between businesses in the second quarter, compared with 8.4 percent for Global Sources, according to Analysys International.

Alibaba shares are scheduled to be priced Saturday and begin trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange Nov. 6.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/22/business/sxalibaba.php

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