Alibaba frenzy hits New York Stock Exchange

Alibaba, the Chinese e-Commerce giant, has officially set the record for the biggest initial public offering ever, after its bankers on Friday increased the size of the deal by 15 percent to $25 billion, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Monday. After Alibaba's shares leaped 38 percent on their first day of trading on Friday, the company's underwriters decided an option that allowed them to increase the deal size from its original $21.8 billion.
Already, the New York I.P.O. ranked as the biggest on a stock market in the United States, having overtaken Visa's 2008 offering, which raised $19.7 billion. the Alibaba deal broke the global I.P.O. record of $22.1 billion. The total deal size rose to 368.1 million shares, up from 320.1 million shares previously. The additional shares were issued at the same price as the main offering: $68 apiece. Alibaba itself sold 26.1 million additional new shares. Jack Ma, Alibaba's founder and executive chairman, sold 2.7 million additional shares; and Joe Tsai, the company's vice chairman, sold a further 902,782 shares.
The long-awaited public market debut of the Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet titan, did not disappoint on Friday, eclipsing every other company that has started to sell stock so far this year.
After pricing at $68 a share on Thursday night, Alibaba's shares opened sharply higher on Friday and finished the day up 38 percent, at $93.89. Alibaba, which raised $21.8 billion in its stock sale, instantly became one of the biggest publicly traded technology companies in the world.

Source: Alibaba Website.