BABA - Alibaba Group Holding Limited
182.50 +0.15 (0.08%)
Pre-Market: 9:02AM EST
| Previous Close | 185.25 |
| Open | 183.67 |
| Bid | 182.28 x 800 |
| Ask | 182.18 x 1300 |
| Day's Range | 181.06 - 183.70 |
| 52 Week Range | 129.77 - 195.72 |
| Volume | 16,044,814 |
| Avg. Volume | 13,344,953 |
| Market Cap | 476.089B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 2.26 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 52.14 |
| EPS (TTM) | 3.50 |
| Earnings Date | Jan 28, 2020 - Feb 3, 2020 |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | N/A |
| 1y Target Est | 223.72 |
- Bloomberg
Alibaba Listing a Shot of Confidence for H.K.: BDA China
Nov.21 -- Duncan Clark, chairman at BDA China, discusses Alibaba’s listing in Hong Kong, if the unrest in the city could negatively impact the listing, consumer trends and the outlook for the tech sector. He speaks on “Bloomberg Markets: Asia” from the sidelines of Bloomberg's New Economy Forum in Beijing.
Reuters VideosAlibaba raises up to $12.9 bln in HK listing
176 dollars a share is what investors are being asked to pay For a slice in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. And it's certain to get it .... With retail investors subscribing for 40 times the shares they were originally offered, Alibaba is having to ramp up their allocation to meet demand. Fresh from a record Singles Day online retail extravaganza this month - it took in 38 billion U.S. dollars ... Alibaba will raise 88 billion Hong Kong dollars through this new listing on the local exchange. An auspicious sum because eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture. In U.S. dollars, it comes in at 11.3 billion. Which could go up to 12.9 billion if a further allotment is offered. After 5 months of anti-government protests, the news will be a boost to Hong Kong too. Alibaba's 25 billion dollar Wall Street debut in 2014 was the biggest float ever. Its new listing will set a new record - for the biggest cross-border secondary share sale. A listing ceremony is due to be held at the Hong Kong stock exchange next Tuesday (November 26).
- Bloomberg
Meituan Revenue Beats Estimates on Expansion Beyond Food
(Bloomberg) -- Meituan Dianping’s quarterly revenue beat expectations after the Chinese internet services giant deepened forays into areas beyond its core food and travel business.Sales increased 44% to 27.5 billion yuan ($3.9 billion) in the three months ended September, compared with the 26 billion yuan average of analysts’ estimates. It reported net income of 1.33 billion yuan, including gains from investments, while analysts projected a 502 million yuan loss. That came on the heels of the company’s first-ever quarterly profit in the previous quarter, which stemmed from big one-time investment gains.Backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., Meituan is investing heavily in a plethora of online services from food delivery to travel, competing directly against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Billionaire founder Wang Xing is trying to sustain a robust pace of growth by expanding into newer arenas such as ride-hailing, restaurant management and online groceries. That ambitious expansion has helped Meituan overtake the likes of Baidu Inc. to become China’s third largest publicly traded tech company.What Bloomberg Intelligence SaysMeituan is likely to continue making investments in new initiatives to lay the foundation for its future growth, suggesting there could be fluctuations to its profitability in the coming quarters.\- Vey-Sern Ling and Tiffany Tam, analystsClick here for the research.While Meituan has tightened its belt with less-profitable areas such as bike-sharing, it’s spending at a rapid clip to fend off Alibaba’s Ele.me in meal delivery and Fliggy in travel, an enormous outlay that’s compressing margins. Sustaining growth has also become a stiffer challenge as Chinese economic growth threatens to slide beneath 6%. Longer-term, Wang envisions a super-app modeled on Tencent’s own WeChat, extending a raft of everyday services such as payments to an increasingly wealthy populace.Meituan’s shares dropped nearly 6% Thursday before its results emerged. The stock has more than doubled in 2019 -- easily outpacing Alibaba and Tencent -- as investors bet on its ability to safeguard its share of China’s fastest-growing internet services.To contact the reporter on this story: Zheping Huang in Hong Kong at zhuang245@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin ChanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Trade War Threatens Tech Sectors in China and Silicon Valley
(Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. While the U.S-China trade war rages on, the tensions are exposing growing rifts between China and Silicon Valley.Leading venture capitalists and startup founders expressed concern over their governments’ fierce differences and the potential fallout. Among the dangers are a decline in cross-border investment, disruption in the supply chain and decreased collaboration in fields like artificial intelligence, wireless technology and cancer research.Signs of trouble are emerging in everything from venture capital to movie-making. Fundraising for dollar-based venture capital funds in China is down 75%, estimates Qiming Venture Partners’ founding partner Gary Rieschel. Olivia Hao, an executive at Beijing-based film production startup Baozou, said it is increasingly hard to make investments or buy other companies in the U.S.“Before, people were impressed when we said we had screenwriters from Hollywood,” said Hao on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Beijing. “Now people say, why aren’t you using more Chinese creators.”China and the U.S. are edging closer to a trade deal but the deteriorating situation in Hong Kong and the U.S. bill on the city’s special status threaten to stall negotiations.The fight to rule the technology sector is at the heart of China-U.S. tensions. Over the last few decades, the two countries have woven together a world-spanning supply chain that helped create innovation like Apple Inc.’s iPhone and propel industries like AI and robotics.American money has flowed into China, lending the capital essential in creating many of the countries’ top technology companies like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. Chinese and American engineers have traversed both countries, driving innovation at startups and large companies alike. All of that is under the microscope now that the U.S. is clamping down on Chinese investment in the U.S. and scrutinizing the capital flows between the two countries.“Foreign capital remains the primary provider of early stage risk capital in China,” Rieschel said, adding that “82% of venture capital goes to the U.S. and China, these two countries have to work together in areas like AI.”Increasingly, American tech companies, venture capitalists and startups face a narrow choice on how to deal with China: Either take the country at face value and decide that as a rational business, profits matter more than any kind of moral high ground, or make a conscious decision to stop pursuing business in a country that will require you to adhere to its viewpoints inside -- and outside -- its borders.There are signs that Silicon Valley, which long avoided politics and courted a close relationship with China, is now starting to turn. U.S. venture capital companies and startups are refusing Chinese limited partners and investors. There are suspicions around Chinese startups in the fields of semiconductors, artificial intelligence and robotics who want to do business in the U.S., or try to attract funds from American venture capitalists.A number of Chinese startups also are souring on the view that Silicon Valley is the bastion of innovation.“Of course it will take years for China to catch up on deep tech like chips, but when it comes to areas like logistics and retail, China is moving much faster,” said Spencer Deng, founder of startup Dorabot, which is based in Shenzhen but has offices in Atlanta. “In the last three years, can you name one new innovation that came from Silicon Valley?” he said.Dorabot is working with companies like Walmart Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc. on automated technology.China is also taking steps to reduce its dependency in key areas of technology including in chips. “China’s semiconductor industry is catching up, they will be competitors in the global stage, and it provides a great place for us to invest,” said Neil Shen, managing and founding partner of Sequoia Capital China.The country’s ambition for its semiconductor industry grew in recent years as it spends more on importing chipsets than oil each year. Beijing has injected tens of billions of dollars into its young chip sector to build mega factories and attract top talent as the China attempts to reboot its economy with advanced manufacturing.Note: The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.\--With assistance from Gao Yuan.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Shelly Banjo in Hong Kong at sbanjo@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Colum Murphy, James MaygerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Pinduoduo’s Founder Loses $5 Billion Overnight as Earnings Miss Estimates
(Bloomberg) -- An epic stock rally for China’s e-commerce upstart just faltered, clipping the fortune of its founder.Pinduoduo Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Colin Huang lost almost a quarter of his fortune as the company’s stock plummeted 23% on Wednesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth tumbled to $16.3 billion, down $4.8 billion from a day earlier.PDD’s stock drop was the biggest since it held an initial public offering in July last year, reducing this year’s gain through Wednesday to a still-respectable 40%. The sell-off was triggered by the company’s worse-than-expected quarterly results. Sales more than doubled to 7.51 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) for the three months ended September, but fell short of the average analyst projection of 7.65 billion yuan. Net loss widened to 2.3 billion yuan from 1.1 billion yuan a year earlier.The disappointing results came after arch-rivals Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc. chipped away at the Chinese e-commerce upstart’s dominant position in smaller cities.Founded by Huang in 2015, PDD has carved a niche with social commerce that encourages making purchases with others. But the Shanghai-based startup is now working to shake off its reputation for hawking cheap products, just as Alibaba and JD delve deeper into PDD’s base of smaller cities. In September, JD rolled out a group-buying app which, like PDD, entices purchases with generous discounts.What Bloomberg Intelligence says:Despite heavy marketing expenses, the company’s marketplace model can sustain high gross margin and should lead to profit as revenue scales up.Vey-Sern Ling and Tiffany Tam, analystsClick here for the research.PDD said in a statement that many brands and small merchants must “choose one of two” platforms to be listed, without naming rivals. “Forced exclusivity has a material impact on Pinduoduo, we had to row upstream against the pressure,” it said.Sales and marketing expenses surged 114% to 6.9 billion yuan, helping China’s No. 3 shopping app to add 64 million new active users during the quarter. Its founder signaled that the company can afford to buy growth.“When there is opportunity, we should spend our money aggressively. We shouldn’t put our money into the piggy bank,” Huang told analysts on a conference call.To contact the reporters on this story: Venus Feng in Hong Kong at vfeng7@bloomberg.net;Zheping Huang in Hong Kong at zhuang245@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Colum Murphy, David ScheerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- MarketWatch
Alibaba raises $11 billion in Hong Kong secondary listing
The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has raised at least $11 billion in a share offering in Hong Kong, netting the city’s biggest offering since 2010 despite recent political turmoil.
- Reuters
UPDATE 3-Alibaba, Aramco share sale bonanza fails to produce fee windfall for banks
A late-year rush of giant global share sales led by Alibaba's $13 billion Hong Kong listing and Aramco's $26 billion initial public offering is failing to deliver an equivalent payday for equities bankers. Filings on Thursday revealed 17 banks will split up to $32.3 million for Alibaba Group's Hong Kong deal, which will raise up to $12.9 billion for the Chinese e-commerce giant.
- Reuters
Alibaba, Aramco share sale bonanza fails to produce fee windfall for banks
A late-year rush of giant global share sales led by Alibaba's $13 billion (£10 billion) Hong Kong listing and Aramco's $26 billion initial public offering is failing to deliver an equivalent payday for equities bankers. Filings on Thursday revealed 17 banks will split up to $32.3 million for Alibaba Group's Hong Kong deal, which will raise up to $12.9 billion for the Chinese e-commerce giant. Earlier this week, sources told Reuters that banks working on Saudi Aramco's IPO would split fees worth 0.35% of the amount raised, meaning at the top of its pricing range, raising $25.6 billion, fees would reach $90 million.
- Investor's Business Daily
Pinduoduo Earnings Disappoint; Chinese E-Commerce Giant Dives
The Pinduoduo quarterly earnings report was worse than expected, as operating expenses more than doubled. Shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant plunged Wednesday below a buy point.
- Zacks
Alibaba Debuts Shares in Hong Kong: BABA Implications
This stock has a lot of upside potential, with the looming trade war being the only hampering its surge.
- Bloomberg
Amazon Throws Spaghetti at the Grocery Wall
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Amazon.com Inc. loves to tinker and test. Sometimes projects that seemed like mindless fiddling — the Kindle e-reader, the Prime shopping club, its Amazon Web Services cloud-computing operation — turned out to be important advances for the company, its customers and the technology industry.Despite that history, I have to ask: Does Amazon know what it’s doing in groceries?When Amazon agreed to buy the Whole Foods supermarket chain for nearly $14 billion more than two years ago, it was regarded largely as a bold masterstroke. Groceries and other household goods are a magical category of consumer spending, with close to $1 trillion spent in the U.S. each year. The combination of large spending, the frequency of grocery shopping and its relative lack of e-commerce penetration has made groceries a prime (pun intended) target for Amazon, China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and other new economy giants.So far, Amazon’s serious foray into groceries is marked by head-scratching tactics and middling financial and strategic performance. It’s still early in the supermarket era for Amazon, and it’s never wise to count the company out. Still, unlike Amazon’s history of wild experiments that became wild successes, the company doesn’t have the field of grocery innovation entirely to itself. And it remains unclear whether Amazon has a novel or sensible idea to take grocery shopping in a fresh direction. For now, Amazon has a growing grocery sprawl. Customers can buy groceries and household goods from Amazon in a tangle of spots: its eponymous website; Prime Pantry, a separate shopping club for bulky household goods; the 12-year-old Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service that is expanding; Whole Foods and its separate and expanding delivery operation; the Prime Now delivery service for orders in some cities in one or two hours; Amazon’s couple dozen Go convenience stores without cashiers; a different supermarket chain that Amazon is starting from scratch; a couple of drive-in grocery pickup kiosks in the Seattle area; and — if you’re not exhausted yet reading this list— Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that Amazon wants to take the cashier-less Go technology into larger, supermarket-sized stores.There may be a method to Amazon’s grocery madness. For now, it just looks like madness.The company’s most established grocery operation, Fresh, has languished for years. Amazon has made sensible changes at the 500-store Whole Foods chain, but there have been few of the earth-shattering retail innovations that people expected or feared at the time of that acquisition. And Amazon, which has had patchy success with online shopping outside the U.S., has a largely parochial supermarket operation.Investors barely press Amazon to explain its performance and strategy with Whole Foods and its other food initiatives, and Amazon has obliged by not saying much. Amazon’s limited financial disclosures are enough to make me wonder whether groceries sales at U.S. market leader Walmart are growing faster than those at Amazon’s relatively pipsqueak operation.Amazon’s reported third-quarter revenue growth for its physical stores, which include Whole Foods, Go stores and Amazon’s collection of bookstores — declined 1% from a year earlier after adjustments for movements in foreign currencies. This growth figure excludes Whole Foods delivery orders or purchases made for pickup in stores — fast-growing categories of grocery spending.Amazon in previous quarters provided adjusted figures that indicated its physical stores’ revenue growth was closer to 5% to 6% including online and pickup orders. Walmart in the third quarter said its U.S. grocery operation recorded a “mid-single-digit” percentage comparable sales growth — roughly the same range, you’ll notice, as Amazon’s earlier growth figures.The strategic and financial costs for Amazon’s grocery initiatives are enormous. Whole Foods was by far Amazon’s largest acquisition in its history. My Bloomberg News colleagues previously reported that Amazon has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Go stores, and that may be a lowball figure. In Wednesday’s article, Bloomberg reported that some of the 1,000 or so people working on Go were recently told their cumulative salaries have totaled more than $1 billion since the project started in 2012.A larger, suburban-sized grocery store is what Amazon originally imagined for its cashier-less Go stores before deciding that megamarkets were overly ambitious. The smaller-format Go stores certainly have received much attention — and they are the genuinely novel idea that Amazon hasn’t showed in its other physical store attempts. Still, it’s hard to call the Go stores a success so far, and Amazon has been less ambitious with their rollout than it planned initially.The sophisticated technology behind shopping with as little human interaction as possible is a promising idea, and it could be licensed to non-Amazon supermarkets or other retail stores, as Amazon, Microsoft Corp. and other technology companies are trying. I do wonder whether retailers that compete with Amazon — essentially all retailers these days — will be willing to pay to use technology from a competitor. Those fears, and the response by technology companies and grocers to Amazon’s push into food sales, are among the signs that Amazon may have less time to tinker than it did in the past. It’s the company that everyone else watches closely, to immediately imitate or respond to what it is doing. Amazon has a long leash from investors to figure out tactics that will give the company a crack at an enormous chunk of people’s wallets. The experience of shopping for groceries definitely could use fresh ideas and approaches. I’m just not convinced that Amazon has them.To contact the author of this story: Shira Ovide at sovide@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Niemi at dniemi1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Shira Ovide is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. She previously was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Barrons.com
What China Slowdown? Alibaba Raises $13 Billion in Secondary Offering.
Alibaba raised up to $13 billion in its secondary listing, proving that demand is hot for shares in the Chinese e-commerce giant despite economic concerns and political unrest in the region.
- Zacks
Amazon Expands Deal With Salesforce, Gains Competitive Edge
AWS, Amazon's (AMZN) robust cloud platform, extends global partnership with Salesforce.com in a bid to further bolster its cloud offerings.
- Reuters
China's Pinduoduo posts bigger loss as costs surge; shares tumble
The company was started just four years ago but has been described by analysts as a disruptor to the dominance of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Taobao and JD.com Inc over China's retail sector thanks to its popularity among the country's rural residents. "We continued to invest in our users throughout the third quarter, and stepped our marketing up a notch from the second half of September," Chief Executive Officer Huang Zheng said in a statement. The company, which gained a following in China by strategies such as offering consumers deeper discounts on mostly generic products if they buy in groups, also blamed the larger-than-expected loss on the so-called "choose one from two" practices.
- Financial Times
Best of Lex Midweek: Resetting capitalism, Hong Kong-style
, a sine qua non of Hong Kong, where I lived until recently, is under threat. In many ways, Hong Kong is finance and its role as the international gateway between China and international capital markets is predicated upon the rule of law and its pegged currency. Protest, too, is a broad church: witness the marching lawyers and office workers who have taken to the streets to offer their voices in support of all they hold dear: the freedoms that make Hong Kong a very different place from cities across the border.
- Financial Times
Alibaba to raise up to $12.9bn in Hong Kong listing
Alibaba is set to raise as much as $12.9bn in its secondary listing in Hong Kong, pricing its shares at a slight discount to those traded in New York in what will be the world’s biggest equity raising this year. The Chinese technology group has provided guidance to institutional investors that it will sell shares at HK$176 ($22.48) each, according to a company statement that confirmed an earlier Financial Times report. The shares will list in Hong Kong on November 26 under the ticker 9988 — numbers that are auspicious in Chinese culture.
- MarketWatch
Alibaba prices Hong Kong listing to raise as much as $12.9 billion
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced its Hong Kong public offering has been priced at HK$176 per share, which equates to approximately $180 per U.S.-listed share. Alibaba said the proceeds will be HK$88 billion, or $11.2 billion, and underwriters have been granted an option to sell another 75 million shares, which could take total proceeds to approximately $12.9 billion. Alibaba's American Depositary Shares shares closed at $185.25 Tuesday.
- Bloomberg
Alibaba Raises $11 Billion in Biggest Hong Kong Listing Since 2010
(Bloomberg) -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has raised about HK$88 billion ($11.2 billion) in its Hong Kong share sale, marking the biggest equity offering in the financial hub since 2010.The company confirmed that it has priced 500 million new shares at HK$176 each in a statement on Wednesday. The price represents a 2.9% discount to the last close of Alibaba’s American depository shares in New York, with each equal to eight ordinary shares of the internet company. This Hong Kong share sale is also one of the largest globally this year.The mega share sale comes as Hong Kong’s economy has been hurt by months of increasingly violent protests and growing anti-China sentiment. Alibaba’s return will please Chinese officials who’ve watched many of the country’s largest private firms flock overseas for capital. With a Hong Kong listing in sight, Alibaba will challenge Tencent Holdings Ltd. for the title of the largest listed corporation in the city.Why Now, and Why Hong Kong, for Alibaba’s Share Sale?: QuickTakeAlibaba has allocated more shares for individual investors, raising the ratio to 10% from 2.5% of the total offering, people familiar with the matter said, who asked not to be identified as the details are private. The company has an over-allotment option to sell an additional 75 million shares.The firm is planning to have its shares start trading Nov. 26 on the Hong Kong exchange under the ticker 9988. Eight is an auspicious number in Chinese culture.Hong Kong is no stranger to Alibaba as the tech giant once listed its business-to-business platform in the city in 2007. Shares of Alibaba.com tripled at debut on overwhelmingly strong investor demand for technology companies. The enthusiasm didn’t last and the stock plunged later. Alibaba took the platform private in 2012 at HK$13.5 each, which was the IPO offer price five years earlier.In 2014, Alibaba listed its shares in New York in the biggest ever initial public offering. After losing some of China’s brightest technology stars, Hong Kong started looking into allowing dual-class shares. Last year, the city’s bourse introduced new rules to accommodate the structure. The efforts to lure Alibaba went all the way to the top of Hong Kong’s government, with Chief Executive Carrie Lam exhorting billionaire Jack Ma to consider a share sale in the financial hub.A listing in Hong Kong brings Alibaba closer to its home market as well as Chinese investors. The company could become eligible for trading via the two links with China, which allows investors on the other side of the border to buy and sell shares listed in the former British colony.Read: Alibaba Won’t Join Hong Kong’s Stock Benchmark Any Time SoonAlibaba is “hopeful to be eligible in the future,” its head of investor relations Rob Lin said on an investor call last week.“The key element as to why this listing here in Hong Kong could be an advantage is the stock connect,” Ken Wong, a Hong Kong-based Asian equity portfolio specialist at Eastspring Investments Hong Kong Ltd., said on Bloomberg Television. “Once Alibaba’s in the stock connect, you have a lot of mainland Chinese investors who can finally start to invest in Alibaba.”Credit Suisse Group AG and China International Capital Corp. are the joint sponsors of the share sale. Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley are also arranging the deal.\--With assistance from Julia Fioretti.To contact the reporters on this story: Carol Zhong in Hong Kong at yzhong71@bloomberg.net;Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.net;Crystal Tse in New York at ctse44@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Fion Li at fli59@bloomberg.net, Peter ElstromFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Business Wire
Alibaba Group Announces Pricing of Global Offering
The final offer price for both the international offering and the Hong Kong public offering (the “Offer Price”) has been set at HK$176 per Share. The Company has set the Offer Price by taking into consideration, among other factors, the closing price of the ADSs on November 19, 2019 (the latest trading day before pricing).
- South China Morning Post
Stocks Blog: Hong Kong stocks start with losses, as Tencent, HKEX, AIA fall
Good day, traders -- The US Senate followed the House in passing legislation supporting Hong Kong protesters. The legislation now goes to US President Donald Trump at a high-stakes moment in US-China talks over a partial trade deal. Please help us improve our blog by taking this quick -- under 2 minutes! -- survey. Your feedback will really help us make the blog better for you!\-- Georgina Lee and Deb Price in Hong KongMorning guidance Here's what we are watching this morning:Overnight markets/ What futures foretellIPO debuts: Shenzhen Qingyi Photomask Ltd (688138 CH) Economic data: From China, November one-year and five year loan prime rateEarnings: Nothing major Hang Seng Index to underperform mainland's onshore, offshore stocks, Morgan Stanley saysHong Kong's Hang Seng Index is likely to underperform any other key gauge tracking China's onshore and offshore stocks in 2020, as the fallout from the months-long political unrest hits growth and corporate earnings, according to Morgan Stanley.The benchmark of 50 stocks trading in the city may finish next year at 27,500, analysts led by Jonathan Garner at the US investment bank wrote in their 2020 strategy report for Asia's emerging markets. That implies a 1.5 per cent gain from its close on Tuesday. In comparison, the year-end targets for the CSI 300 Index of mainland-traded stocks, the MSCI China Index of Chinese companies trading on both onshore and offshore markets and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index will see gains of at least 6 per cent from current levels."Key sectors in Hang Seng with sizeable exposure to Hong Kong's local economy such as financials and properties will also continue to suffer in 2020," the report said.Read full story by stocks reporter Zhang Shidong here. China selfie-editing app Meitu completes steps to acquire controlling stake in Dajie NetMeitu (1357 HK), one of China's selfie-editing apps, has completed the acquisition of a controlling stake in Dajie Net Investment Holdings.According to the Meitu's off-trading hours filing, it has satisfied all the conditions for the acquisition of 57.09 per cent of Dajie, a social networking and job search platform, including the payment of HK$395.5 million (US$50.5 million) by allotment and issue of 85,739,105 consideration share and the remaining HK$52.5 million in cash. The acquisition will allow Meitu, which enhances users' selfies, to further expand its reach and hold to the young set of technologically-savvy and digital native Chinese. On Tuesday, Meitu's shares closed 3.145 per cent higher to HK$1.64China Energy Engineering unit secures US$523 million contract in southern African country of LesothoA unit of China Energy Engineering (3996 HK), one of China's biggest power plant designers and builders, has secured a US$523-million contract with the Southern African country of Lesotho for the construction of a special economic zone project. The project, will be helmed by Gezhouba Group International Engineering, a subsidiary of China Gezhouba Group, which is a unit of China Energy Engineering. The project is located in Mafeiteng area of Lesotho, which is 80 kilometres from the capital Maseru.The project comprises a light industrial, agricultural, pharmaceutical processing park with an area of about 60,000 square metres, including processing plants, warehouses, office areas, logistics facilities, ancillary living facilities, water supply and electricity facilities. On Tuesday, shares of China Energy Engineering, based in Beijing and the flagship unit of state-owned Energy China Group (3996 HK), closed unchanged at HK$0.79 apiece. \-- Cheryl ArcibalTse Sui Luen Jewellery International looking for ways to counter plunge in net profit amid protests, trade warRead full story by Snow Xia here. Hong Kong and China stocks open lowerThe Hang Seng Index slid 0.6 per cent, to 26,936.79.The CSI 300, which tracks blue chips listed on Shenzhen and Shanghai, dropped 0.2 per cent, to 3,940.13, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2 per cent to 2,928.11.The Hang Seng has surged 2.9 per cent over the past two days, in part due to the ongoing mega-IPO of Alibaba whose secondary listing in Hong Kong is reportedly receiving enthusiastic response from institutional investors. Alibaba will start trading on the main board on November 26.HKEX (388 HK), the city's bourse operator, lost 2.3 per cent, to HK$246, after Spanish newspaper Cinco Dias reported that it is one of the bidders for the Spanish exchange BME, owner of the Madrid stock exchange. This comes after its failed attempt to buy the London Stock Exchange in October.In China, the National Interbank Funding Centre will announce the November 1-year and 5-year loan prime rates (LPR) for NovemberIntroduced in August to replace the benchmark lending rate, the LPR is the average of the 18 reporting banks' lending rate to their highest quality borrowers. The rate on the 1-year fixing now stands at 4.2 per cent, after two cuts in August and September, while the five-year is at 4.85 per cent, with no cut so far.In Shanghai, liquor distiller Kweichow Moutai (600519 CH) slid 0.2 per cent to 1230 yuan; Ping An Insurance (601318 CH) lost 0.4 per cent to 88.58 yuan.\-- Georgina Lee GCL-Poly Energy Holdings rises after tumble TuesdayShares of GCL-Poly Energy Holdings (3800 HK) -- one of China's largest solar panels materials producers -- and its solar farms development subsidiary GCL New Energy Holdings (451 HK) are starting off with different assessments by traders after their plunge Tuesday. GCL-Poly Energy rose nearly 2 per cent to 26 HK cents in early morning trading, while GCL New Energy fell 0.9 per cent to 21 Hong Kong cents.They tumbled Tuesday after the subsidiary said a preliminary agreement inked in June this year for GCL-Poly to sell a 51 per cent stake of GCL New Energy to China Huaneng Group -- the nation's largest power producer -- has been terminated. Instead, the pair has entered into a preliminary agreement for GCL New Energy's solar farms to be sold to China Huaneng. GCL-Poly owns 62.3 per cent of GCL New Energy. Both companies are highly indebted and in need of new capital to retire existing debts. Jiangsu province-based GCL-Poly Tuesday closed 5.6 per cent lower at 25.5 HK cents while GCL New Energy closed down 6.4 per cent at 22 HK cents. After the market closed, GCL-Poly chairman Zhu Gongshan told a teleconference with investors and analysts that the reason for a change in the proposed transaction with China Huaneng is because a takeover of GCL New Energy by China Huaneng will entail a long approval process by multiple central government departments, while a bulk asset sale by GCL New Energy to China Huaneng will be much simpler and quicker to implement. He declined to divulge the number and generation capacity of the solar farms to be sold, as the sale terms are being negotiated. The change in transaction format means the deal size will like be "much smaller than originally planned", Daiwa Capital Markets' analysts said in a note on Tuesday. "As the GCL New Energy assets [will] continue to remain on GCL-Poly's balance sheet ... [the latter] may still face great financial burden from [the debt of] both GCN New Energy and itself," they wrote.Zhu also said during the conference that China Huaneng also intends to provide a bridge loan to help GCL-Poly refinance its debt, so that it will not risk defaulting on them when they become mature. The amount and interest rate of the bridge loan is under negotiation. GCL-Poly has some US$600 million of due for repayment mid 2021, he added.Shenzhen Qingyi Photomask surges in debut on China's Star board Shenzhen Wingyi Photomask (688138 CH), which debuted on the science and technology innovation Star board in Shanghai, doubled its share price minutes after market open, to 20.22 yuan, compared to its offer price at 8.78 yuan.The Shenzhen-based company makes photomask, which is a high precision plate engraved with microcircuit made of a glass plate. It is used in micro-electronic manufacturing such as integrated circuit chips and flat panel display.\-- Georgia Lee Mobile game developers' gains continue in Shenzhen, bucking downtrend of China marketsSeveral stocks extended their gains from previoussessionsand hit the 10 per cent up limit again today.Their surge came amid expectations for more on-demand cloud gaming to emerge from leaders in the cloud computing field, such as Tencent (700 HK) and Alibaba (which lists next Tuesday in Hong Kong), now that 5G has been launched in China. Tencent has already launched its cloud gaming solution this year. The frenzy was also fuelled this week by Google's launch on Tuesday of its own cloud gaming service called Stadia.Investors are betting that cloud gaming, which streams games directly to a user's handheld device without the need for a console, will open up more opportunities for online game developers.The 10-percent gainers include Huawei Culture (002502 CH), to 4.21 yuan; Dalian Zeus Entertainment (002354 CH), to 3.05 yuan; Zhejiang Juli Culture Development (002247 CH) to 3.23 yuan; and Kingnet Network (002517 CH), which is available through the Stock Connect, to 3.09 yuan.China 1-year loan prime rate for November cut to 4.15 per cent, 5-year unchangedThe National Interbank Funding Centre published the November 1-year and 5-year loan prime rates (LPR). The 1-year rate was cut by a small 5 basis points, to 4.15 per cent from 4.2 per cent. It's the third cut this year, after the 1-year rate was reduced by 11bp in August and September.The 5-year LPR, a rate often used in mortgage lending in China, was not changed.Introduced in August to replace the benchmark lending rate, the LPR is the average of the 18 reporting banks' lending rate to their highest quality borrowers. It is used to price loans to both individuals and businesses.The Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.2 per cent at 2,928.76, while the CSI 300 lost 0.2 per cent at 3,938.15.\-- Georgina Lee Hang Seng weighed down by profit taking, rush in orders for Alibaba stock, says analyst Kenny Tang Blame the Hang Seng's decline in the morning session on profit taking and investors piling their money into orders for Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant whose secondary listing debuts in Hong Kong next Tuesday. (Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.)"There is some profit taking pressure," said Kenny Tang Sing-hing, chief executive of Royston Securities."And also the Dow Jones retreated from its high level. So I think it is quite reasonable for the Hang Seng to have some profit taking. And now money is locked into the Alibaba IPO, so the buying interest may have slowed down," he added.The Hang Seng declined 0.5 per cent to 26,949.04. Read about the latest on Alibaba's stock offering -- the world's biggest IPO this year -- in this article by Enoch Yiu and Peggy Sito.NavInfo surges to 5-week high on new collaboration with Huawei on autonomous vehiclesNavInfo (002405 CH) jumped 8.8 per cent to 16.2 yuan after announcing it will provide Huawei with its map test verification service that will be part of Huawei's self-driving car testing and verification process. The jump marked a five-week high for Navinfo, which develops navigation software and digital map software. It also is involved in chip manufacturing and vehicle networking technology.Navinfo said Tuesday night that it will tailor make map data products and services for Huawei. It did not give any financial details of the collaboration.This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
- South China Morning Post
Alibaba may price Hong Kong stock offering at HK$176 each after marketing process in world's biggest IPO this year
Alibaba Group Holding will offer the investors of its Hong Kong shares a slight discount to its US-listed depositary shares, as Asia's most valuable company prepares to kick off the world's largest initial public offering this year.The Hangzhou-based company may price its secondary stock offering in Hong Kong at HK$176 each based on guidance at the end of a global marketing process, according to people familiar with the matter. The price works out to about 2.6 per cent discount to Alibaba's November 19 closing price of US$185.25 in New York. It is also about 6.4 per cent below the indicative ceiling of HK$188 each for retail investors in Hong Kong. Eight Hong Kong-listed shares are worth the equivalent of one New York-listed share.Based on the guidance, the company could raise as much as HK$101.2 billion (US$13 billion) if the full allocation of 575 million shares is taken up, making it the biggest offering globally so far this year.Alibaba, owner of South China Morning Post, will price its global offering later today, or no later than November 25. The shares are expected to start trading on November 26, according to its listing prospectus. Alibaba's listing Taobao users in Asia a chance to own China's biggest tech championThe secondary listing in Hong Kong will be a homecoming for the e-commerce giant more than five years after it completed a US$25 billion share sale in New York, giving the Asian financial centre a shot in the arm amid a political crisis and an economic slump. The process gives Alibaba's millions of customers in Asia a chance to own in the technology champion. The size of Alibaba's offering will push the local bourse to the top of global IPO league table in 2019, above the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. The operator of online trading platform offered 500 million shares in its secondary listing plan, allocating 12.5 million to retail investors in Hong Kong and 487.5 million to international investors. Both portions may be increased, depending on demand. 'Taobao Queen' leads the charge as fans get ready to spend on Alibaba's offeringChina International Capital Corporation (CICC) and Credit Suisse are the sponsors for the secondary offering in Hong Kong. Investors in Hong Kong have borrowed a total of HK$13.3 billion in margin financing to subscribe for the shares, representing an oversubscription of 4.5 times, some stockbrokers estimated. Bright Smart Securities, the most active retail broker in local IPO margin financing, offered HK$3.2 billion, it said. The retail offering via cash subscription will remain open until noon local time today. Banks hoard cash in anticipation of Alibaba's 'giant' listing, push up interbank lending rateStill, Alibaba and other companies with so-called weighted voting rights will not be able to join the Hang Seng Index until at least May next year at the earliest, according to index compiler Hang Seng Indexes."We will have a consultation in the first quarter on whether to add any weighted voting rights companies or secondary listing companies into the Hang Seng Index," Vincent Kwan Wing-shing, chief executive of Hang Seng Indexes, said in a phone interview. "We will announce the conclusion in May next year."For more insights into China tech, sign up for our tech newsletters, subscribe to our award-winning Inside China Tech podcast, and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report. Also roam China Tech City, an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus.This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2019 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
- Reuters
Alibaba raises up to $12.9 billion in landmark Hong Kong listing
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group raised up to $12.9 billion in a landmark listing in Hong Kong, the largest share sale in the city in nine years and a world record for a cross-border secondary share sale. The deal will be seen as a boost to Hong Kong following more than five months of anti-government protests and its recent slide into its first recession in a decade. Alibaba said in a statement it had priced the shares at HK$176 ($22.49) each, a discount of 2.9% to its New York closing price, confirming information earlier reported by Reuters.
