Summary
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group launched the share sale for its Hong Kong listing Wednesday, braving unrest in the global financial hub to try to raise up to $13.4 billion to fund its expansion plans.
Alibaba had been planning to sell the shares earlier this year, but in August postponed the deal as the anti-government protests rocking Hong Kong since June became increasingly violent.
The deal had been initially expected to raise up to $15 billion, but 500 million primary shares will now be sold in the listing.
A sale of that size would dilute existing shareholders from the company's New York listing by 2.8 percent, and investors would be able trade shares between the two exchanges.
At $13.4 billion, Alibaba's share sale would rank as the world's largest follow-on share sale targeting an entirely new stock exchange, according to data from Dealogic.
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