Alibaba shares surge on New York stock market debut
Wall Street debut for e-commerce giant makes founder Jack Ma richest man on mainland as firm sells extra shares to meet strong demand
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's shares surged on its long-awaited Wall Street debut yesterday following a record stock offering that opens the door to its global expansion.
A group of Alibaba customers rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, including Lao Lishi, an Olympic swimming gold medallist in 2004 who has a store on Alibaba's Taobao platform selling wooden prayer beads and bracelets.
The listing has made founder and chairman Jack Ma Yun, 50, the mainland's richest man. He sold shares worth US$867 million in the offering, with the bulk of his wealth tied up in the 206 million shares he is hanging on to - representing about 7.3 per cent of the company's enlarged share capital. Ma now has an estimated net wealth of more than US$25 billion.
"Personally, I don't have any feeling of being the richest person in any way," Ma told reporters at the New York Stock Exchange after the shares debuted.
He added that he felt "blessed" by the trust of investors and the company would "spend the IPO money wisely and carefully".
Alibaba and its investors, including Yahoo, raised US$21.77 billion by selling 320.1 million American depository shares, with half allocated to 25 large institutional accounts, according to people familiar with the deal.