阿里巴巴IPO籌資目標提至218億美元

With demand for the Alibaba Group’s stock market debut proving even stronger than expected, the Chinese e-commerce giant has done the only logical thing: set its fund-raising sights even higher.

隨着事實證明阿里巴巴集團上市的需求高於預期，這家中國電子商務巨頭做了一件十分合乎邏輯的事情：將籌資目標定得更高。

The company raised the price range for its initial public offering to $66 to $68 for each American depositary share, up from $60 to $66, according to a regulatory filing on Monday, pushing up its potential haul from the stock sale to as much as $21.8 billion.

根據週一的一份監管文件，該公司將首次公開募股(IPO)定價區間從每股美國存托股票(ADS)60美元（約合370元人民幣）到66美元上調至66美元到68美元，籌資的資金可能最多達到218億美元。

That would value the e-commerce giant at $165.5 billion at the midpoint of the new range.

以新定價區間的中間值計算，這家電子商務巨頭市值將達到1655億美元。

But while the order book is significantly oversubscribed — enough that Alibaba’s army of underwriters plans to begin closing order books Tuesday afternoon — the company and its advisers were conscious of not significantly raising the price range just because they could, according to people briefed on the offering’s plans.

但據瞭解上市計劃的人士透露，雖然已經出現了嚴重超額認購的情況——阿里巴巴的承銷商計劃從週二下午開始結束訂購，但該公司及其顧問意識到，不能僅僅因爲他們可以這樣做就大幅上調定價區間。

Potential investors have been eagerly awaiting the stock debut of Alibaba for months. More than 800 people showed up at a luncheon presentation in New York last week just to hear directly from the company’s executive chairman and co-founder, Jack Ma.

數月來，潛在的投資者急切地等待阿里巴巴上市。上週，800多人蔘加在紐約舉行的午餐會，只爲能聽到公司執行主席、聯合創始人馬雲的講話。

Purchase orders have been coming in huge portions as investors place enormous orders in the hope of receiving even a fraction of the shares requested. One hedge fund with about $3 billion in assets under management even put in an order for several billion dollars’ worth of American depositary shares, one of these people said.

訂單蜂擁而至，投資者下了大量訂單，希望能夠獲得一部分股份，即便是訂單的一小部分也可以。前述瞭解內情人士中有一位表示，一家掌管30億美元資產的對衝基金甚至訂購了價值數十億美元的美國存托股票。

But the company is hoping to attract plenty of big mutual funds and other investors that are expected to hold onto shares forthe long term rather than quickly flip their holdings. Keeping the price range modest means that Alibaba will be able to pick more of those firms for share allocations, another one of these people said.

但該公司希望吸引大量大型共同基金，及其他有望長期持有股份而不是迅速出售所持股份的投資商。另一名人士表示，將定價區間保持在適度水平意味着阿里巴巴將能夠從中挑選更多公司，進行股權分配。

At a luncheon on Monday in Hong Kong’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, which occupies the top floors of the city’s tallest building and overlooks Victoria Harbor, Mr. Ma told several hundred potential investors that the company was being careful not to set valuations too high or too low, one audience member said.

一名出席者說，週一在位於香港最高建築頂層、俯瞰維多利亞港的麗茲-卡爾頓酒店的午餐會上，馬雲對數百名潛在投資者說，公司正小心避免把估值定得過高或過低。

One of the most obvious examples of what not to do, according to the people briefed on the public offering plans, was to repeat what happened in Facebook’s $16 billion stock market debut. The company bumped up its price range to take advantage of strong investor demand, but that left little potential upside to investors who did not participate in the stock offering. Coupled with technical issues that affected the trading of the company’s stock, that helped lead to a terrible first-day showing.

聽取了IPO計劃的人說，阿里巴巴最應該做的，就是防止Facebook上市時的悲劇重演。Facebook當時的融資規模爲160億美元。爲了利用強勁的投資者需求，Facebook提高了價格區間，爲沒有參與首次發行的投資者留下的上漲的空間幾乎爲零。再加上影響了股票交易的技術問題，導致Facebook上市首日一片混亂。

(Facebook’s stock has since recovered, and then some, with the company now commanding a market value of more than $200 billion.)

（Facebook的股價此後反彈並有所上漲，現在的市值已超過2000億美元。）

Alibaba and its underwriters have taken that lesson to heart and resisted bumping up the top of the price range to $70, as one news report suggested on Monday. That will cost the company the bragging rights for the biggest public offering of all time — a title that will stay with the Agricultural Bank of China, which raised $22.1 billion — but it sends the message that the company is focusing on the long term rather than trying to pick up every possible penny from potential investors.

週一的媒體報道稱，阿里巴巴及其承銷商已經把Facebook的教訓牢記於心，它們拒絕把價格區間上限提高到70美元。阿里巴巴因此將永遠失去了炫耀史上最大IPO的權利——這個紀錄仍然由中國農業銀行保持，其IPO規模爲221億美元——但此舉傳遞的信息是：阿里巴巴專注的是長期，而不是爲了儘可能地拿走潛在投資者的每一分錢。

Nor has the company or the relatively few shareholders who are selling some of their holdings increased the number of shares available for the offering, again in contrast to Facebook’s market debut.

阿里巴巴和即將出售部分持股的少數股東也沒有增加股票發行量，這再次與Facebook上市時的情況形成了鮮明對比。

One of the people briefed on the company’s plans said that if the I.P.O. “left a little money on the table,” or did not raise as much as it could have, that would suit Alibaba’s management fine.

瞭解該公司計劃的人說，如果這次IPO“漏掉了一些錢”，或者，本來能籌到更多的錢，但實際上卻沒有籌到，阿里巴巴管理團隊也是完全能接受的。