Alibaba raises share price in advance of IPO

In advance of its New York IPO on Friday, Alibaba has raised its share price from $60-$66 to $66-$68 per American depositary share.

 

The move is in response to a higher than expected demand for the Chinese e-commerce group's stock market. It pushes up the company's potential value to as high as $21.8bn.

 

According to the NY Times, a huge volume of purchase orders has flooded in over recent months, with one hedge fund putting in an order for several billion dollars’ worth of American depositary shares.

 

But Alibaba is cautious about hiking its share price too much according to people briefed on the offering’s plans. When Facebook bumped up its share price in response to popular demand, it led to a bad first-day showing on the stock market – Alibaba is thought to have taken that lesson to heart and resisted bumping up the top of the price range.