Alibaba IPO ranks as world's biggest after additional shares sold

[September 22, 2014]  By Elzio Barreto
 
 HONG KONG (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's initial public offering now ranks as the world's biggest in history at $25 billion, after the e-commerce giant and some of its shareholders sold additional shares.

Overwhelming demand saw the IPO initially raise $21.8 billion and then send Alibaba's stock surging 38 percent in its debut on Friday. That prompted underwriters to exercise an option to sell an additional 48 million shares, a source with direct knowledge of the deal said.

The IPO surpassed the previous global record set by Agricultural Bank of China Ltd in 2010 when the bank raised $22.1 billion.

Under the option, Alibaba agreed to sell 26.1 million additional shares and Yahoo Inc 18.3 million, netting the two companies an extra $1.8 billion and $1.2 billion respectively.
 

Alibaba's Jack Ma agreed to sell an extra 2.7 million shares and company co-founder Joe Tsai agreed to sell 902,782 additional shares, according to the prospectus.

The source declined to be identified as the details of the additional sale have yet to be made official. Alibaba declined to comment.

Citigroup Inc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley acted as joint bookrunners of the IPO.

Rothschild was hired as Alibaba's independent financial advisor on the deal.

(Reporting by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Denny Thomas and Edwina Gibbs)

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