China’s largest e-commerce site will try for a $200 million IPO, and plans to list just one division, its website-design unit. Shares of Alibaba.com have performed well in Hong Kong, gaining 4.6 percent since Sept. 26. when Alibaba.com first mentioned it would file a separate listing for its website-design division. Alibaba plans to use the funds to develop cloud-computer data storage and e-mail solutions and expand past its current focus: website hosting. Here in the U.S., Alibaba.com is often used by businesses to find Chinese suppliers — Wal-Mart is even a client.
If all this talk of Alibaba.com and IPOs ring a bell, it should. In 2007, Alibaba.com’s IPO in Hong Kong raised $1.7 billion, the biggest Internet IPO since Google’s in 2004.
No details on when this IPO will happen. Of course, the IPO market is currently closed, but some of the highest performing IPOs in the past two years have been Asia- or Pacific-based companies, says Kathy Smith, founder of IPO research firm Renaissance Capital.
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