Chinese online retail titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) is hoping to raise up to US$15 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), a report said yesterday, which would be the territory’s biggest listing for nine years.
The share sale by Asia’s biggest company would also come as Hong Kong authorities battle months of pro-democracy protests that have dented the financial hub’s economy and reputation.
Alibaba is looking to scoop up between US$10 billion and US$15 billion in the IPO, Bloomberg News cited unnamed sources as saying, and is looking to hold a hearing into the move — as mandated by Hong Kong Stock Exchange rules — next week.
Photo: Reuters
The firm declined to comment when contacted by reporters.
Alibaba, which is already listed on the NASDAQ, had planned to list in the summer, but called it off owing to the demonstrations and the US-China trade dispute.
If realized, the US$15 billion IPO would be the biggest since insurance giant AIA garnered US$20.5 billion in 2010.
However, it is lower than the US$20 billion it had aimed to raise initially.
A second listing in Hong Kong would also curry favor with Beijing, which has sought to encourage its current and future big tech firms to list nearer to home after companies such as Alibaba and Baidu Inc (百度) listed on Wall Street.
Mainland Chinese authorities have stepped up moves to attract such firms, including by launching a new technology board in Shanghai in July.
The Sci-Tech Innovation Board was launched as a battle with the US for technological supremacy heated up, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) calling on tech leaders to become global champions, while the US has fought back in part by taking steps to clip the wings of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
Alibaba has capitalized on Chinese consumers’ love of e-commerce to dominate the sector in China and become one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS