Alibaba.com to delist this week
Grace Cao
Monday, June 18, 2012
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Alibaba.com (1688) will delist from the Hong Kong main board on Wednesday,
marking the end of the e-commerce firm's trading in the local stock market.
Privatization by its parent - Alibaba Group Holding - has been confirmed by
the Cayman Island Grand Court where it is registered, Alibaba.com said
yesterday. This is a first step toward an initial public offering to be
launched by Alibaba Group in the near future.
The mainland e-commerce giant, famous for its online shopping site Taobao,
has been planning an IPO for the past five years.
It recently spent US$7 billion (HK$54.46 billion) in buying back 20 percent
of itself from Yahoo! - previously one of its major shareholders.
"The privatization proposal will facilitate a shift in strategy toward
longer- term growth," said Jack Ma Yun, chairman of the group on February 21
, when he suggested taking Alibaba.com private for the first time.
The group, which held 73.12 percent in the company, planned to buy back the
remaining 26.88 percent shares from shareholders at HK$13.50 each, involving
as much as HK$19.6 billion.
This is compared with HK$13 billion Alibaba.com raised through an initial
public offering in 2007.
The offer price, the same as its IPO price, represented a premium of 45.9
percent over the stock price on February 8 just before the shares were
suspended.
Established in 1999 in Hangzhou, the business-to- business e-commerce
trading platform mainly serves small businesses around the world.
"The group considers that the depressed share price of Alibaba.com has had
an adverse impact on its reputation with customers," Ma said in February.
Listed in 2007, Alibaba.com's stock price rocketed to HK$31.76 on its debut,
up 135 percent over its listing price.
The stock then climbed higher and peaked at HK$38.92 at the end of November.
But then, it quickly fell as the global financial crisis ensued.
