Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Watch out, your term sheets are slipping

A Dow Jones piece from Hong Kong claims to be based on a leaked copy of the Alibaba IPO term sheet. Highlights:

  • Alibaba, it says, will sell 858.9 million shares, equivalent to 17% of its business-to-business unit's enlarged share capital.
  • Only 26.5% of the shares in the IPO is new stock not traded privately before the offering.
  • The rest, therefore, comes from Alibaba Group which will use the proceeds to develop its newer, unlisted businesses such as Taobao.
  • The global share offering will be launched on Oct. 15, with the listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange expected Nov. 6.
  • Revenues are expected to be Rmb2.03 billion (US270 million) with net profits jumping 74% to Rmb622 million (US$82 million).
Not everything listed on the Alibaba sites (or, to be fair, other similar ones) are quite what they claim to be. In six days time, we'll know whether this was based on an authentic Ali-term sheet won't we.

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