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Alibaba.com Unlocks IPO Investors, Float May Rise 14%
Business-to-business e-commerce company Alibaba.com (1688.HK) has given eight cornerstone investors early release from a lock-up agreement signed ahead of Alibaba.com's initial public offering, which required the investors to hold an aggregate 157.76 million shares until November 2009. The eight investors purchased shares at HK$13.50 each and held 3.13% of Alibaba.com's total market capitalization; that number of shares is expected to increase Alibaba.com's unrestricted public float by about 14%, said a company announcement. The release was effective from market close Thursday.
The cornerstone investors were Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq;YHOO), AIG Global Investment Corporation (Asia) Ltd., Foxconn (Far East) Limited, Baldonna Investments Limited, Finawood Investments Limited, Honeybush Limited, Cisco Systems International B.V., and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited (1398.HK, 601398.SH). Alibaba.com raised HK$13.1 billion in its November 2007 offering, globally the second largest Internet IPO in history, according to the announcement.
"We believe that releasing the locked-up shares into the unrestricted public float will help increase the liquidity of our shares and improve their attractiveness for institutional investors," said Alibaba.com Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu.
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