On August 28th, Alibaba Group announced that it has officially completed its dual primary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, marking a new milestone in its development.
Double listing completed in August
Alibaba revealed in May of this year when releasing its fiscal year 2024 annual report that it expects to complete its major listing conversion in Hong Kong by the end of August 2024. After the conversion is completed, Alibaba will be listed on both the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
Just last week, Alibaba Group announced that it will add Hong Kong as its main listing location and will primarily list on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on August 28th, becoming a company with dual main listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. Now, this action has been successfully completed.
Alibaba Announcement on August 23rd
According to a previous disclosure by Alibaba, its dual primary listing in Hong Kong does not involve new stock issuance or financing.
In fact, as early as July 2022, Alibaba applied for a major listing in Hong Kong. In July of that year, Alibaba announced that its board of directors had authorized the group's management to submit an application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to add Hong Kong as its primary listing location.
Earlier, Alibaba Group announced that it is currently listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the second time and will apply for Hong Kong as its main listing location in accordance with the Hong Kong Listing Rules. It is expected to take effect before the end of 2022. Subsequently, in November 2022, Alibaba's Hong Kong Stock Exchange announced that it would not complete its main listing by the end of 2022 as originally planned.
Before officially completing the conversion to a major listing in Hong Kong, we still need to develop and submit a new employee stock ownership plan to shareholders for approval to comply with the newly revised rules in Hong Kong, "the group announced earlier.
Expected to be included in the Hong Kong Stock Connect as early as September
According to data, since Alibaba's second listing in Hong Kong in 2019, most of its publicly traded shares have been transferred to Hong Kong. In terms of market value and trading volume, Alibaba has consistently ranked among the top three Hong Kong stocks, making its main listing a natural occurrence.
Industry insiders have pointed out that the dual major listings in Hong Kong, China and New York, USA will further expand the investor base from mainland China and other parts of Asia, promote shareholder diversification, enhance the liquidity of Alibaba's Hong Kong stock, and provide greater flexibility for investors to hold and trade Alibaba shares in the public market.
According to institutional research reports, the market widely expects Alibaba to meet the conditions for inclusion in the Hong Kong Stock Connect after completing its dual major listing in Hong Kong, and is expected to be included as early as September. Among them, Morgan Stanley predicts in its research report that after being included in the Hong Kong Stock Connect, the proportion of southbound capital holdings may remain stable at over 10% in the long run, which is expected to provide significant incremental support for the company's value.
invested $5.8 billion in repurchase in the first quarter
On the evening of August 15th, Alibaba Group announced its first quarter performance for the fiscal year 2025. This is also Alibaba's first financial report disclosed after entering the new fiscal year.
Financial data shows that Alibaba's revenue for the quarter was 243.24 billion yuan, compared to 234.156 billion yuan in the same period last year, an increase of 4% year-on-year; Adjusted EBITA profit of 45.035 billion yuan.
Among them, Alibaba Cloud's public cloud revenue grew in double digits, AI related product revenue grew in triple digits, and adjusted EBITA increased by 155% year-on-year; Alibaba International Digital Business Group's revenue increased by 32% year-on-year; Cainiao's quarterly revenue increased by 16% year-on-year.
On the other hand, Alibaba is continuously accelerating its buyback efforts. In the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, it has invested $5.8 billion to repurchase 613 million shares of common stock, exceeding the intensity of previous quarters. As of the first quarter ending June 30th, Alibaba had 19.024 billion shares of common stock in circulation, a net decrease of 445 million shares of common stock for the quarter, with a net decrease ratio of 2.3%.
According to statistics, in the past fiscal year 2024, Alibaba has invested a total of $12.5 billion in repurchases, ranking first among Chinese concept stocks in terms of repurchase scale. As of June 30, 2024, there is still a remaining repurchase amount of $26.1 billion under Alibaba's share repurchase plan, valid until March 2027.