2nd UPDATE: Alibaba.com Waives IPO Lock-Up Period
June 04 2009 - 8:27AM
Dow Jones News
Alibaba.com Ltd. (1688.HK) said Thursday it has waived lock-up
restrictions that required eight cornerstone investors in its
initial public offering to hold onto their shares for two
years.
Alibaba said in a statement the early release from the lock-up
agreement took effect after the Hong Kong stock market closed
Thursday and covers 157,760,000 shares, or 3.13% of its issued
share capital.
Under the original terms of their investment, the investors
would have been compelled to hold on to the shares until Nov.
6.
Alibaba Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu told Dow Jones
Newswires the move was intended to increase the liquidity of the
company's shares and thus make them more attractive to
institutional investors.
"It's hard for institutional investors to build a position.
Buying a couple million shares a day, it takes a couple days to
build a decent position," she said.
Alibaba shares closed at HK$14.02 Thursday, above their IPO
price of HK$13.50 and up 151% year-to-date.
The cornerstone investors include Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and AIG
Global Investment Corp., a unit of the troubled insurance giant.
They also include Foxconn (Far East) Ltd., a unit of Taiwan's Hon
Hai Precision Industry Co., Cisco Systems International B.V., and
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.
Wu denied that Alibaba was freeing up the shares in response to
investors who wanted to sell. Asked if AIG or others had asked
Alibaba to be released from the lockup, Wu said "not at all. It's a
very nice surprise to them."
Alibaba.com is the listed unit of Alibaba Group, which is
39%-owned by Yahoo.
Yahoo has an indirect stake in Alibaba.com through its stake in
the parent, but also directly owns 1.14% of the listed entity.
Alibaba spokesman John Spelich said the change in the lockup
period didn't indicate any intention for Yahoo to sell its stake.
There has been speculation Yahoo may sell the stake, and its other
Asian assets, since activist investor Carl Icahn suggested it last
year.
Yahoo and AIG weren't immediately available for comment.
Wu also said the company has no plan currently to pursue any
equity financing by issuing shares.
J.P. Morgan analyst David Wei said the move would be negative
for the stock in the short term, as it would increase supply, but
would be positive in the long run due to increased liquidity of the
shares.
Following the move, the company's unrestricted, publicly traded
shares come to around 25% of its total equity, a level that Wei
said "is not very big, but not very small either."
Given strong interest in the stock and its recent
outperformance, trading liquidity has become an issue for the
shares, Wei said.
The analyst has a neutral rating on the stock and a HK$12.00
price target.
Wu said that the move reflects the company's confidence in its
operations, and said that businesses has been good so far in the
current quarter.
"We still have one month to go for this quarter, but so far we
continue to see very good customer acceptance. Customer acquisition
is running at a very sustainable pace," she said.
Wu also said the company has no plans currently to pursue any
equity financing by issuing shares.
-By Aaron Back, Dow Jones Newswires; (8610) 6588-5848;
aaron.back@dowjones.com