China’s Alibaba has broken records with a US$21.8bn initial public offering (IPO) as its shares were launched on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Friday.
Shares soared 38 per cent on to US$68 per share at its official NYSE launch, bringing the Alibaba's market value to US$231bn, according to Reuters. SInce then, the group's underwriters have issued additional shares, bringing Alibaba's IPO to US$25bn.
The Hangzhou-based company was founded by former school teacher Jack Ma in 1999 and now accounts for around 80 per cent of China’s online sales.
“We have a dream,” Ma said at the official NYSE launch. “We hope in the next 15 years the world changes because of us. We hope in 15 years people say this is a company like Microsoft, IBM, Walmart…We want to be bigger than Walmart.”
Some 88 per cent of American consumers had never heard of Alibaba last Monday, according to a poll conducted for Reuters, though that looks set to change with the e-commerce company launching a US subsidiary, 11main.com, which allows consumers to shop at a selection of boutique retailers online.
US fresh produce companies have already had a chance to explore what Alibaba has to offer, with Northwest Cherry Growers using Alibaba’s subsidiary Tmall to run cherry campaigns across China.
