"A swath of early investors in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will be able to sell more than $8 billion worth of shares on the day the Chinese e-commerce company goes public, an unusual arrangement that is influencing how bankers price the offering.
Alibaba plans to price its shares at $66-$68, which at the midpoint would give it a valuation of about $165 billion.
Insiders and other investors in companies staging initial public offerings are generally required to hold on to shares for several months, in "lockup" arrangements banks design to help protect the stock's price in its early days.
But with Alibaba, a number of shares equal to about a third of what could be sold in the deal aren't covered by such restrictions, according to the company's public filings. In contrast, no pre-IPO shares of Facebook Inc. FB +0.84% were allowed to be traded when the social-media company made its market debut.
Demand for Alibaba's shares appears strong ahead of its expected IPO Friday...
WSJ, Alibaba IPO Gives Insiders Rare Chance to Sell Early
After the bell the word came out that Larry Ellison will be stepping down as the CEO of Oracle. He will remain as the Chairman and Chief Technology Officer. Bloomberg was gushing with the news.
The big news for tomorrow will be the results of the vote for Scottish Independence, which I view as a more political issue with implications for the Anglo-American banking cartel, if one subscribes to domino theories. Scotland's independence is dangerous in the same way that the peaceful demonstrations of Occupy were dangerous. It gives other people ideas.
And the big, big news will be the Alibaba IPO. It is being brought to market fairly briskly, on the day after they have ended their road show.
As you may recall, Goldman will be managing the order flow of shares tomorrow. If they were not holding the bag for unsold shares I might be a little more concerned.
The secondary market might be lively, because of general 'edge' to the market, and the number of insider shares that are not 'locked up' from trading on the first few days of the IPO.
I bought a little volatility today. I might buy more. I was talking with an acquaintance, and he asked me if the old saw 'sell Rosh Hashanah' might be in order this year (starts at dusk on 24 September). I said it might be a little late.
Let's see how the events of tonight and tomorrow go, and most particularly how we start off next week.
Have a pleasant evening.
