Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Ali-IPO "this month"

Somebody at the South China Morning Post appears to be confident in their belief that Alibaba's IPO will take place this month. Although the plan to make a Hong Kong listing is public knowledge, the exact timing has been a closely-guarded secret. But a Business Post 'fluff' piece (i.e. not real news and sorry, the link's only good for subscribers) on Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack says the following:

Mr Mack was determined to make Alibaba the centrepiece of Morgan Stanley's drive to become No1 for the first time in the market for initial public offerings in Hong Kong.

When Alibaba raises US$1 billion this month, it will be at least the 10th non-state mainland public offering arranged by the world's second-largest securities firm this year, bringing Morgan Stanley's share of the market to about 25 per cent, more than its two competitors combined.

That seems pretty clear. Surely, the Morgan Stanley PR people who placed the article didn't slip up and reveal the timing did they?

Correction: Somebody at Bloomberg appears to be confident in the date being this month. That story is popping up all over the place (e.g in Australia and here's the Bloomberg original).


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