Alibaba set to raise IPO range to $66 to $68 on ‘overwhelming’ demand

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd plans to increase the size of its U.S. initial public offering because of “overwhelming” investor demand, people familiar with the deal said on Monday. The Chinese e-commerce company launched the IPO last week and had enough investor demand to cover the entire deal within two days, people familiar with the process said last week. Alibaba could set a new record for the world’s biggest IPO if underwriters exercise an option to sell additional shares to meet demand, pushing it as high as $24.3 billion and overtaking Agricultural Bank of China Ltd’s $22.1 billion listing in 2010.

Demand has been overwhelming since the launch. Increasing the price range was already on the cards from the beginning.

Anonymous source, who cannot be named as IPO details are not yet public

The company and some shareholders offered 320.1 million American depositary shares at a $60 to $66 per-share indicative range. Alibaba likely will file an amendment to its IPO later on Monday with a higher price range after discussing the new price with large U.S. mutual funds and institutional investors, one of the people said. Bloomberg earlier reported that Alibaba plans to increase the top end of the price range to above $70. Alibaba spokeswoman Florence Shih declined to comment on the size of the IPO being raised. Reuters reported on Friday that Alibaba plans to close its IPO order book early after it received enough orders to sell all the shares in the record-breaking offering.

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