Alibaba Seeks To Raise Up To $15B In Hong Kong

In a move comes five years after its record-setting initial public offering in New York, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s is looking to raise $10 billion to $15 billion in a second listing in Hong Kong. The firm is aiming to roll out the share sale following its “Singles Day” shopping festival, and it expects to pursue approval from the stock exchange of Hong Kong next week, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The firm plans to use most of the Hong Kong share sale proceeds to grow its business amid increasing competition from domestic competitors per an unnamed source in the report. Rivals like Meituan Dianping and Pinduoduo Inc. are challenging the company in food delivery, eCommerce, and other offerings. On Friday, Alibaba said it raised its stake in a delivery and logistics firm it controls to 63 percent from 51 percent with an investment of about $3.3 billion.

A listing that is successful would further improve the finances of the company, which is already soaring. Alibaba, which is headquartered in Hangzhou, dominates the online retail industry of China’s and “sales are continuing to swell” per WSJ. The company recently threw an extravagant 20th birthday party at a stadium that also served as a retirement party for Jack Ma and hired Taylor Swift for Singles Day.

In separate news, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. noted a larger-than-expected 40 percent increase in second-quarter revenue with formidable growth in its cloud computing and eCommerce businesses. Sales from the company’s eCommerce business grew approximately 40 percent to 101.22 billion yuan, and its cloud computing business notched a 64 percent rise in revenue to 9.29 billion yuan.

Its total revenue increased to $16.91 billion or 119.02 billion yuan in Q2, which ended on Sept. 30, from 85.15 billion yuan a year prior. Analysts were forecasting revenue of 116.8 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv IBES data.