BABA - Alibaba Group Holding Limited
172.80 -0.21 (-0.12%)
Pre-market: 5:45AM EDT
| Previous close | 172.80 |
| Open | 174.87 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 2900 |
| Ask | 172.93 x 1000 |
| Day's range | 172.99 - 175.15 |
| 52-week range | 129.77 - 198.35 |
| Volume | 13,647,241 |
| Avg. volume | 19,761,277 |
| Market cap | 450.385B |
| Beta (3Y monthly) | 1.84 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 49.47 |
| EPS (TTM) | 3.50 |
| Earnings date | 21 Aug 2019 - 26 Aug 2019 |
| Forward dividend & yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-dividend date | N/A |
| 1y target est | 217.88 |
- Bloomberg•2 hours ago
Trading Frenzy Grips China’s New Stock Venue After Big IPO Gains
(Bloomberg) -- They propelled a little-known semiconductor manufacturer to a 521% surge, traded a mid-sized railway company 13 times more feverishly than the world’s largest bank and valued a chipmaking-gear producer at an eye-watering 730 times earnings.Chinese investors greeted the opening of the country’s Nasdaq-style equity market with a frenzied burst of trading on Monday, driving gains in all 25 companies that made their debut. The stocks jumped an average 140% at the close in Shanghai, even as most slipped from their intraday highs. About 48.5 billion yuan ($7.1 billion) of shares changed hands on the so-called Star board, or about 13% of turnover in the rest of the market.The new venue is China’s latest attempt to avoid losing the next Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. or Tencent Holdings Ltd. to exchanges in New York or Hong Kong. Endorsement from top officials helped generate such enthusiasm that firms raised a combined $5.4 billion, about 20% more than planned. Demand from retail investors has outstripped supply by an average 1,800 times, even as some analysts voiced concern over lofty valuations.“Gains were much stronger than expected, either due to unreasonable IPO pricing or speculative trading,” said Zhu Junchun, a Shanghai-based analyst with Lianxun Securities Co. “It’s going to be a liquidity game in the first half year or one year of trading. Judging by the trading activity and gains on the board, it’s definitely a success.”The board is also a testing ground for regulators, who have waived rules on valuations and debut-day price limits for the first time since 2014. The venue is the only one in China to welcome companies that have yet to make a profit, as well as shares with unequal voting rights. The Shanghai stock exchange will create an index tracking the firms about two weeks after the 30th listing starts trading.Shares on the Star board have no daily price limits for the first five trading days, followed by a 20% cap in either direction. To limit volatility, the venue suspends activity for 10 minutes if a stock moves by 30% and then 60% from the opening price in the first five trading days, a wider band than the rest of the stock market. Only certain qualified foreign investors can buy the stocks directly, as there’s no access through trading links with Hong Kong.The first batch of listings included China Railway Signal & Communication Corporation Ltd., whose Hong Kong shares sank on huge volume as traders switched into the A shares. Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc., which was the most expensive listing of the batch, jumped as much as 331%. Its 171 multiple compared with an average of 53 times for the group, and 33 for similar stocks on other Chinese venues.Despite the hype, there are questions about whether the excitement will give way to the lukewarm sentiment that’s blanketing the world’s second-largest equity market. On the other hand, a sustained period of ultra-high demand risks draining funds from other exchanges, where volumes are shrinking. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.3% on Monday, while the ChiNext Index was down 1.7%.It’s not the first time China has sought to create an alternative venue for smaller companies. The ChiNext board was launched in Shenzhen almost a decade ago with fewer listing requirements than the main venues. The tech-heavy exchange was at the center of a spectacular boom and bust in 2015 that burned hordes of novice traders. Officials will be keen to avoid such extreme volatility -- the ChiNext remains more than 60% below its peak four years ago.“I’m not going to participate in the Star board anytime soon,” said Qu Shaohua, managing director at Acroguardian Investment Co. “With prices at these levels it will take quite a long time for the market to fully digest the current valuation and adjust to a reasonable price.”The Star board’s launch dovetails with Beijing’s pledge to boost direct financing for companies struggling to raise funds, and has taken on added significance as heightened trade tensions with the U.S. threaten China’s technology supply chain.“I would say that the launch is a success,” said Fu Lichun, an analyst at Northeast Securities. “People are indeed quite enthusiastic, and maybe got a little over-excited at the open.”\--With assistance from Irene Huang, Lujia Yu, Fox Hu, Ken Wang, Ludi Wang and Michael Patterson.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Evelyn Yu in Shanghai at yyu263@bloomberg.net;April Ma in Beijing at ama112@bloomberg.net;Amanda Wang in Shanghai at twang234@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sofia Horta e Costa at shortaecosta@bloomberg.net;Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg•12 hours ago
Wanna Bet $1.3 Trillion on Chinese Regulators?
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- If you hold shares in New York-listed Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., you don’t own a stake in a Chinese internet powerhouse.What you have are the American depositary receipts of a Cayman Islands company that has a contract with the Chinese firm. In fact, the country’s largest search and e-commerce provider(1)is ultimately controlled by Alibaba Partnership, a collection of 38 people, most of whom hold senior positions in the company.This business structure, called a variable-interest entity, became common among Chinese companies because Beijing restricts foreign investment in certain sectors, such as the internet. It also enables firms to raise money abroad and lets early investors get their funds out of the country. Tencent Holdings Ltd., Meituan Dianping and Baidu Inc. all hew to various versions of the VIE, allowing them to exploit a gap in Chinese law.In total, almost $1.3 trillion in market capitalization is linked to Chinese VIEs listed outside the mainland, according to U.S. credit-ratings provider Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC.For now, these companies aren’t doing anything illegal and Beijing hasn’t seen the need to close this loophole. Keeping VIEs operating in a gray area gives policymakers the flexibility to crack down at will. But as the trade war intensifies, China has a growing incentive to keep its tech giants, and their cash, at home. In that light, it’s not inconceivable that officials would take steps to eliminate the structure, even if it spooks foreign investors.For years, knowledge that the Chinese government could take action at any time hung a legal cloud over VIEs. S&P previously accounted for such risk among VIEs operating in sensitive businesses, such as Alibaba and Tencent, though not for others in more mundane areas like retail.In a report last week, analysts Clifford Kurz and Sophie Lin wrote that recent changes in China’s foreign-investment law make no mention of VIEs, after an earlier draft sought to prohibit them. S&P interprets this to mean that concerns have diminished. I understand their reasoning, but disagree with the conclusion.Silence is certainly better than an explicit ban. Yet having a gray area within an opaque legal system simply puts such companies and investors at the whim of policymakers. There may indeed be a lack of incentive to dismantle VIEs today, and doing so probably would hurt foreign-investor sentiment. Neither factor amounts to much if Beijing one day gets fed up with Chinese companies using overseas listings as a way to get their assets offshore.This year alone, 31 Chinese companies chose to raise almost $6 billion by listing in the U.S. Not because they get better valuations there, but because founders and VCs know a public offering in China would give them illiquid assets subject to capital controls. Beijing has tried all sorts of things to encourage its companies to list at home, the latest being the SSE STAR Market – a Nasdaq-style tech board – for which regulators eased rules to attract interest. Yet as my colleague Nisha Gopalan wrote recently, Chinese companies still want to raise dollars, both to fund expansion and give Western venture-capital firms a hard-currency exit.If such carrots keep failing, Beijing could very well bring out sticks. Given the state of U.S.-China relations, there’s little reason to believe policymakers will prioritize the concerns of foreign investors over its own desire to prevent capital flight.This means that in assessing VIEs, foreign investors need to consider whether they’re willing to leave $1.3 trillion to the whims of a Chinese legal gray area.(1) Alibaba's revenue primarily comes from sellers paying to get elevated in search results on its platforms.To contact the author of this story: Tim Culpan at tculpan1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rachel Rosenthal at rrosenthal21@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks•3 days ago
Is Microsoft a Buy After Solid Q4 Earnings?
Microsoft is set for new heights after a stellar quarter.
- Zacks•3 days ago
Alibaba (BABA) Upgraded to Buy: Here's What You Should Know
Alibaba (BABA) has been upgraded to a Zacks Rank 2 (Buy), reflecting growing optimism about the company's earnings prospects. This might drive the stock higher in the near term.
- Bloomberg•3 days ago
China's New Nasdaq-Style Venue Set for Monday Trading Start
(Bloomberg) -- Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next.Less than a year after President Xi Jinping first touted the project, China’s new stock venue designed for technology startups will start trading on Monday.Twenty-five companies will be part of the launch in Shanghai, out of the more than 100 hopefuls that applied to go public on the platform. Endorsement from top officials helped generate such enthusiasm that the firms raised a combined $5.4 billion, about 20% more than planned. Demand from retail investors has outstripped supply by an average 1,800 times, even as some analysts voiced concern over lofty valuations. One company priced its shares at 171 times earnings.“The first-batch listings are expected to be boosted by investor demand,” said Mark Huang, an analyst at Bright Smart Securities. “There’s a good chance we’ll see a rush into these stocks due to the limited supply.”Modeled after the Nasdaq Stock Market in the U.S., the so-called STAR board is China’s latest attempt to avoid losing the next Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. or Tencent Holdings Ltd. to exchanges in New York or Hong Kong. It’s also a testing ground for regulators, who have waived rules on valuations and first-day price limits for the first time since 2014. The venue will be the first in China to welcome companies that have yet to make a profit, as well as shares with unequal voting rights.The listing companies include China Railway Signal & Communication Corporation Ltd. -- already listed in Hong Kong -- and gastrointestinal equipment maker Micro-Tech (Nanjing) Co. Ltd. Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc., which sells products used to make semiconductors, is the most expensive stock of the batch. Its 171 multiple compares with an average of 53 times for the group, and 33 for similar stocks on other Chinese venues.A handful of stocks linked to the first batch advanced on Friday, showing investor enthusiasm ahead of the new board’s debut. And another two firms joined the queue to list: Amlogic (Shanghai) Co. and Shanghai Friendess Electronic Technology are aiming to raise a combined 2 billion yuan ($291 million), according to their prospectuses.Despite the hype, there are questions about whether the excitement will give way to the lukewarm sentiment that’s blanketing the world’s second-largest equity market. On the other hand, a sustained period of ultra-high demand risks draining funds other exchanges, where volumes are shrinking. Mainland markets sank earlier this month after China announced the STAR board’s official start date. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.8% on Friday.It’s not the first time China has sought to create an alternative venue for smaller companies. The ChiNext board was launched in Shenzhen almost a decade ago with fewer listing requirements than the main venues. The tech-heavy exchange was at the center of a spectacular boom and bust in 2015 that burned hordes of novice traders. Officials will be keen to avoid such extreme volatility -- the ChiNext remains more than 60% below its peak four years ago.Shares on the STAR board will have no daily price limits for the first five trading days, followed by a 20% cap in either direction. To limit volatility, the venue will feature a mechanism that suspends activity for 10 minutes if a stock moves by 30% and then 60% from the opening price in the first five trading days, a wider band than the rest of the stock market.The STAR board’s launch dovetails with Beijing’s pledge to boost direct financing for companies struggling to raise funds, and has taken on added significance as heightened trade tensions with the U.S. threaten China’s technology supply chain.“It’s one of China’s key strategies to support technological innovation,” said Zhang Yankun, fund manager at Beijing Hone Investment Management Co. “If investors can get decent returns from these listings, it would attract more money to the sector and help China’s capital market compete with developed markets.”(Updates with stock moves in sixth and seventh paragraphs.)\--With assistance from Irene Huang and Lujia Yu.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Ken Wang in Beijing at ywang1690@bloomberg.net;Evelyn Yu in Shanghai at yyu263@bloomberg.net;Fox Hu in Hong Kong at fhu7@bloomberg.net;Ludi Wang in Shanghai at lwang191@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sofia Horta e Costa at shortaecosta@bloomberg.net;Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg•4 days ago
The Unusual Courtship of China's ESports Queen
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Forget medical school and engineering degrees. With a record 8.3 million university graduates this year, Beijing is urging its best and brightest to take up competitive video-gaming. ESports professionals can make triple the national average salary, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. As the economy slows, pouring resources into China’s night-shift GDP might just be wacky enough to work. Municipal governments have taken the hint, luring gaming clubs with cash handouts and other perks. The resort island of Hainan is setting up a 1 billion yuan ($150 million) development fund and giving up to 10 million yuan in subsidies for international tournaments. Shanghai’s Yangpu district offers a 30% rental discount to businesses in the sector.The push has made unlikely pairings of 60-year-old local bureaucrats and thirtysomething eSports executives, who’ve been forced to ditch their PowerPoint presentations for formal government memos. Pan Jie, nicknamed “the Queen” among China’s professional gamers, has learned that Bohemian dresses and video-game T-shirts don’t go over well when officials visit the Hangzhou headquarters of her club, LGD-Gaming, one of China’s largest.With government support, Pan Jie’s dream of operating her own eSports stadium is getting closer to fruition. Still, you’d be forgiven for doubting that layers of statist procedure can springboard the competitive video-gaming sector, particularly when China’s private enterprises are already struggling to get the funding they need. Having scouted venues across China, Pan Jie settled on a plot of land on the outskirts of Hangzhou, within a shantytown development zone located in the Xia Cheng district. Beijing has been working to revive these areas since 2015, with the central bank flying in more than 3.5 trillion yuan of helicopter money to support such projects through pledged loans. The Xia Cheng district is hoping that a new eSports park – along with the tourism and tech jobs it can generate – will bring in over 1 billion yuan, more than 10% of the 8.9 billion yuan in fiscal revenue it collected in 2018. Judging from a publication by the district’s news office, officials seem to have outlined concrete policies rather than grand promises. Indeed, the local government was quick to act, tearing down old residential buildings to make space for the new construction, which will eventually house up to 1,000 startups. To help LGD-Gaming move into the new center by its May deadline, officials even called furniture shops late at night, demanding employees work overtime to meet the company’s needs. A handful of bureaucrats temporarily stationed at the park have been assigned as startup liaisons.Whether Xia Cheng can meet all the grand expectations is a big unknown. Hangzhou is home to China’s wealthiest businesses, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Yet not all areas are created equal. Last year, Xia Cheng’s GDP grew 6.1% to 93 billion yuan, not even half that of the tourist district of Yu Hang. Meanwhile, Xia Cheng has entrenched business interests to deal with. Smack at the center of the eSports zone is a huge, five-story warehouse occupied by Zhejiang Food Stuff Corp., a provincial champion known for its cured ham. The district has to wait for the company to build another site before any demolition work can begin. For the time being, startups have occupied a small corner of the redevelopment zone, and Shenzhen-based Quantum Capital, a venture-capital firm, postponed opening a branch there. Over the next five years, China’s competitive video-gaming industry can absorb close to 2 million workers, according to the Ministry of Human Resources. But throwing cash at an idea isn’t enough. Bureaucrats will need to show that they can work effectively with what they once called the “lost souls” of the gig economy. During a recent visit to LGD-Gaming, one official pooh-poohed a hipster barbecue joint inside the eSports park: Grilling lamb chops on an open pit? How undignified, he apparently complained. The business was shut within days. “We were sad for a while, because their lamb tasted great,” Pan Jie lamented.To contact the author of this story: Shuli Ren at sren38@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rachel Rosenthal at rrosenthal21@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. She previously wrote on markets for Barron's, following a career as an investment banker, and is a CFA charterholder.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Motley Fool•4 days ago
How to Invest in E-Commerce Outside the U.S.
Online retail is seeing speedy adoption in international markets. Here's how you can take advantage.
- Business Wire•4 days ago
Michael Kors Announces Launch of Its Digital Flagship on Alibaba’s Tmall Luxury Pavilion
Michael Kors, the namesake brand established by the world-renowned, award-winning designer of luxury accessories and ready-to-wear, today announced that it will open its digital flagship store on Tmall, which will be featured on Tmall Luxury Pavilion, Alibaba Group’s dedicated platform for luxury and premium brands. The new online store marks the first third-party partnership for Michael Kors in China and will provide Tmall customers in China with exclusive access to special products launched only on Tmall as well as the entire range of Michael Kors women’s and men’s products. “We are excited to launch our new Michael Kors digital flagship on Tmall and Tmall’s Luxury Pavilion.
- Simply Wall St.•5 days ago
Here's What Alibaba Group Holding Limited's (NYSE:BABA) P/E Is Telling Us
The goal of this article is to teach you how to use price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). To keep it practical, we'll...
- Market Realist•5 days ago
Just How Far Ahead Is Alibaba in China’s e-Commerce Market?
Alibaba (BABA) is known as the leading e-commerce company in China, but just how far ahead is it?
- Zacks•6 days ago
4 Stocks That Can Fuel More Record Growth in the Second Half of 2019
Investors have been keeping their eyes locked on the relationship between the US and China as the rhetoric spewing from the conflict has impacted the stock market for the over a year now.
- Zacks•6 days ago
Alibaba (BABA) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know
Alibaba (BABA) closed the most recent trading day at $174.19, moving +0.4% from the previous trading session.
- CNBC•6 days ago
Alibaba shareholders approve stock split that could boost shares ahead of reported Hong Kong IPO
The one-to-eight stock split would mean the current number of ordinary shares — which stands at 4 billion — will increase to 32 billion. It comes ahead of a reported Hong Kong listing.
- Bloomberg•6 days ago
How Britain’s Savviest Investors Are Beating Brexit
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Since the U.K. decided more than three years ago to leave the European Union, the nation's savviest investors have succeeded by putting their money where Brexit matters least.Uncertainty about the date of Britain’s departure (now pushed back to Oct. 31) and the terms of the divorce has meant purging the U.K. from their holdings or limiting them to investments traditionally impervious to man-made and natural disasters. Over 38 months, British sterling depreciated 16 percent, the worst shrinkage for any similar period in 8 years. The pound remains the poorest performer in the actively-traded foreign exchange market and inferior to the No. 3 euro.Europe's strongest major economy in the 21st century became a shadow of its former self, reversing two decades preceding the June 23, 2016 referendum when the U.K. outperformed the European Union in growth and investment. London's stock and bond markets similarly languished as laggards to world benchmarks, after beating them consistently in the 20 years prior to the decision to leave the EU, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.“If I give myself some credit, I would say that we acted reasonably fast liquidating U.K. shares” in 2016, said Ben Rogoff, whose Polar Capital Technology Trust PLC has been the most consistent winner out of the 212 British global funds with at least 1 billion pounds this year and during the past three years. His team's 114 percent total return (income plus appreciation) was 22 percentage points better than the Dow Jones World Technology Index, mostly because 68% of the fund is invested in the U.S., two-thirds of that in California companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “It's all about the Internet and where do you get exposed to the Internet? The U.S. and China,” Rogoff said last month during an interview at Bloomberg in London.While Rogoff reduced his holdings of three California tech powers during the past year — Cupertino-based Apple Inc., Menlo Park-based Facebook and Santa Clara-based Advanced Micro Devices — he acquired more shares in Hong Kong-based Tencent Holdings Ltd, Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. and Tokyo-based Yahoo Japan Corp., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.The 46-year-old graduate of St. Catherine's College, Oxford, became the lead manager of the trust in 2006, “and at that time,” he said, “the U.K. weighting might have been 5% to 10%, so if you had already been backing away to the door, it's a lot easier to escape than if you built a career around being an expert in U.K. equities.” Since the Brexit referendum, he said, “There's just been a complete buyers' strike of U.K. equities.”Proof of such disdain comes with the crisis this year at the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund, Britain's most-prized investment when it was launched by star money manager Neil Woodford in 2014. The celebrated stock picker became even more prominent with his contrarian bullish stance on Brexit. The fund plummeted 31% during the past two years by holding a combination of large and small U.K. companies and has frozen redemptions indefinitely.“It's symptomatic of a broader problem,” Bank of England Governor Mark Carney told reporters earlier this month. “Our sense is that the financial-stability risks are increasing.”One U.K. investor who’s successfully resisted the trend away from domestic stocks is Nick Train, who manages Finsbury Growth & Income Trust. It returned 61% the past three years — more than twice the FTSE All-Share Index benchmark — as the most consistent one- and three-year performer among the 129 U.K.-based funds investing mostly in domestic stocks or bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Unlike Woodford, who doubled down on the British economy writ large, Train, a 60-year-old graduate of Queen’s College, Oxford, dramatically increased his holdings in consumer staples. These are the companies that make such essentials as food, beverages and household goods and can resist business cycles because their products always are in demand.Train, who declined to be interviewed, increased the consumer staples weighting relative to the benchmark to 27% from 23% in 2015 and he enhanced his holdings of Deerfield, Illinois-based Mondelez International Inc., which manufactures and markets packaged food products, and London-based Diageo PLC, the world's largest producer of spirits and beer, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.That's likely to be a safe bet as no one is counting on the British economy rebounding significantly from near the bottom of the EU while the uncertainty created by Brexit persists. “If you take a long view, then this may well be a great time to be investing in U.K. equity,” said Rogoff. “Thankfully, I don't have to make that binary call because there are very few U.K. companies I'm frankly interested in.”\--With assistance from Shin Pei, Richard Dunsford-White, Kateryna Hrynchak and Suzy Waite.To contact the author of this story: Matthew A. Winkler at mwinkler@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Landman at jlandman4@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Matthew A. Winkler is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the editor-in-chief emeritus of Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Motley Fool•6 days ago
3 Tech Listener Questions, Answered
You wanted to know about Naspers, tariffs, and the SaaS bubble -- we’ve got answers.
- Market Realist•7 days ago
Taiwan Is the Latest Flashpoint in US-China Relations
US-China relations have taken a turn for the worse over the last year.
- Market Realist•7 days ago
China’s GDP Falls to 27-Year Low, Worst Yet to Come?
China released its second-quarter GDP report today. The country’s GDP expanded 6.2% in the second quarter, marking its slowest growth since 1992.
- Yahoo Finance•7 days ago
Companies to Watch: Facebook in the hot seat, Alibaba holds meeting, Hilton goes top shelf
Facebook, Alibaba, Hilton, Sony and Procter & Gamble are the companies to watch.
- Zacks•7 days ago
Semtech Boosts Presence in Smart Meter Space With HWM Deal
Semtech's (SMTC) LoRa devices will be integrated into HWM's smart water meter solutions to improve operations and reduce management costs.
- Market Realist•7 days ago
Has Alibaba Stumbled in India?
Alibaba (BABA) has decided not to put more money in Indian e-commerce provider Paytm Mall.
- Bloomberg•8 days ago
Why This Year’s Biggest IPO Didn’t Happen
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Anheuser-Busch InBev NV blamed market conditions for its decision to pull what would have been the world’s biggest initial public offering this year. Yet the brewer should take at least some responsibility. This concoction was far too frothy for investors when Asian economies face an array of sobering realities.AB InBev said it will no longer proceed with the IPO of its Asia-Pacific business, Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Ltd., which had been aiming to raise as much as $9.8 billion in Hong Kong. The company’s American depositary receipts fell as much as 4.9% in New York before closing down 3% on Friday.The offering valued Budweiser Brewing between 15.5 times and 18.2 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization – well above the multiples for Carlsberg A/S and Heineken NV, and a premium to shares of the parent. The price range of HK$40 to HK$47 ($5.11 to $6.01) a share would have resulted in a market capitalization of $54.2 billion to $63.7 billion.You can hardly blame investors for wanting to sit this one out. The U.S.-China trade war is at an impasse and the ripples are widening. Singapore, a bellwether for global trade, on Friday posted its sharpest growth decline since 2012. While the Federal Reserve has signaled that interest rate cuts are coming, which has buoyed U.S. stocks, that's also driving a wedge between the world’s biggest economy and the rest.This split is perhaps nowhere more apparent than the IPO market. Listings in the U.S. are on track for their best year since 2014. Hong Kong, the top destination last year, is languishing by comparison, after a series of high-profile bloopers including smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. in July 2018 and food-delivery giant Meituan Dianping in September. As I’ve argued, reclaiming that crown will be an uphill battle; and now Hong Kong is facing competition from Shanghai for tech IPOs. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s secondary listing plan is a ray of light – but this latest kerfuffle could dim any optimism.Against this dismal backdrop, it’s little wonder things went south. Yet it’s a mistake to overlook AB InBev’s own missteps. For one thing, the company marketed itself as a purveyor of high-end beer, taking cues from Chinese consumers’ growing taste for foreign brands and craft labels. Perhaps its price range doesn’t look so out of whack when you consider the country's brewers trade anywhere between 15 times and 21 times, according to Bloomberg data. Yet investors just weren't convinced that demand would hold up in a slowing economy. The company’s China pitch also ignored mature markets like South Korea and Australia, which make up around half of Budweiser Brewing’s Ebitda, according to Bernstein Research. Then there’s the fact that growing a brand in Asia's fragmented market is easier said than done. India, where whiskey is the traditional tipple of choice, and Southeast Asia could have been fertile ground for expansion. One argument for an Asia IPO was that Budweiser Brewing would benefit from local tie-ups. Would the Thai tycoon who owns Vietnam’s top brewer, Sabeco Trading Corp., or the magnate that controls the Philippines’ San Miguel Corp. really cede control to the Belgian brewer for a piece of the Hong Kong listing? I’m unconvinced.The fatal flaw, however, may have been AB InBev’s hubris. In deciding against a cornerstone investor tranche, the company eschewed a fixture of Hong Kong’s IPO market. It turns out investors really do like the comfort of big names that pledge to hold stock – even if the practice ties up a lot of liquidity. Had Budweiser’s listing succeeded, it would have been a win for market reform, too. With such a bubbly valuation, AB InBev may have thought its investors were wearing beer goggles. Whether the brewer can make a dent in that $103 billion net debt from its purchase of SABMiller looks a lot less certain after a cold shower and pot of black coffee.To contact the author of this story: Nisha Gopalan at ngopalan3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rachel Rosenthal at rrosenthal21@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Nisha Gopalan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and banking. She previously worked for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones as an editor and a reporter.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Motley Fool•9 days ago
Can China UnionPay Defeat Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay?
Can the former payments monopoly in China regain lost ground against the payment systems of Alibaba and Tencent?
- Market Realist•10 days ago
China’s June Trade Data Was a Mixed Bag
Today, China released its trade data for June. China’s dollar-denominated exports fell 1.3%, while its imports in US dollar terms fell 7.3% last month.
