BABA Alibaba Group Holding Limited

By Serena Ng 

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. stopped collecting orders early for its roughly $13 billion Hong Kong stock sale due to strong investor demand for its shares, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Chinese e-commerce giant closed the books on the institutional portion of the sale at noon EST on Tuesday instead of 4 p.m. during the New York day, the people said. Institutional investors in Asia could submit orders for the offering until 4 p.m. Hong Kong time Tuesday, while investors in Europe could do so until 4 p.m. London time.

Alibaba last week kicked off one of the largest share sales globally this year ahead of a secondary listing in Hong Kong on Nov. 26. The offering is already multiple times subscribed, the people said. A small part of the Hong Kong share sale has been set aside for individual investors, and the final proportion will depend on the volume of orders received. The deal is expected to price Wednesday.

The company earlier said it expected to determine the price of the Hong Kong shares on or around Nov. 20, based on the closing price of its New York-listed American depositary shares on Tuesday. Last week banks underwriting the deal estimated it could be worth about $11.7 billion in total. That could increase to more than $13 billion if they exercise an option to buy more shares after trading begins. Investors have been guided to expect a price of HK$176 (US$22.49) a share, a person familiar with the matter said.

That represents a small discount to the price of Alibaba's existing stock, as is the market convention for follow-on stock offerings. Alibaba's U.S. shares closed slightly higher at $185.25 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, giving the company a market capitalization of about $482 billion. Each ADS effectively represents eight of Alibaba's Hong Kong shares.

Alibaba's listing plans have moved ahead despite a week of violent confrontations between police and antigovernment protesters in the semiautonomous city. The Hangzhou-based company first went public in New York in 2014 after raising $25 billion in what remains the world's largest initial public offering.

China International Capital Corp., the Chinese investment bank known as CICC, and Credit Suisse Group AG are the most senior financial advisers on the deal, a role known in Hong Kong as joint sponsors. They are working alongside Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners.

Write to Serena Ng at serena.ng@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 19, 2019 18:58 ET (23:58 GMT)

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