NEW YORK – “I came fifteen years ago in the United States in search of two million of capital – said the CEO of Alibaba Jack Ma on the eve of the IPO that was launched yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange – This time I want a little ‘more . ” The value of the security that the previous night had been fixed at $ 68 is immediately shot up to 92, then passed the rod 100, before returning to float above the threshold of 90 for the rest of the session. In the evening closed with a market capitalization of 231.44 billion dollars, a record for a company debut on the financial market.
Alibaba has placed 230.1 million of securities for a value of $ 21.8 billion which, after the exercise of the granted 15% of options on further actions by banks that underwrote, looks set to exceed $ 25 billion. But the same rang the bell on Wall Street that initiates negotiations yesterday morning, but the title Alibaba purchases were delayed for a few minutes, to prevent the recurrence of unpleasant incidents, such as those that accompanied the debut on the Nasdaq on Facebook. This time the launch was executed to perfection: the negotiation of the coupons took place at the center of the room exchange, with dozens of players of international finance closed to circle around to the vendors. The boxes were filled with cheering onlookers, and a crowd of spectators came out of the palace of the bag in Wall Street, spilling into nearby streets. The frenzy of expectation lasted for four months, when the IPO was announced in China. The climax was reached last week, when the charismatic director of the company arrived in the United States for a final roundup of meetings with potential investors ahead of the debut.
Alibaba is able to sustain in the time the price reached yesterday? Analysts are forced to stay the proceedings in front of the phenomenal growth of a company that even though little known abroad, in just fifteen years has beaten the competition of powerful American. In your portfolio there are 231 million shoppers who place 11.3 billion purchase orders for a total value of 296 billion dollars. In comparison, the American Amazon invoice 82 billion, and the historical rival Alibaba: eBay 17 billion. Even more impressive is the profit margin of 40% with whom he conducts business, thanks to an accurate control on producers of goods sold. From about 12 years Jack Ma operates in a monopoly in China, where the retail trade is still in its infancy, and its range of electronic sales with home delivery reaches even the most remote corners of the country. In the future there is the possibility of conquering the other 400 million consumers who have access to the web and who are not yet customers of Alibaba, and then aspire to capture the hundreds of millions who are not yet connected, but that the will be in the future.
THE STRUCTURE
On the other side of the scale weighs instead an identity that is largely tied to the Chinese market alone in spite of the global ambitions of Mr. Ma, and a management structure familist, in which the founder still has a central role, as a little emperor . Underestimating this entrepreneur does not yet fifty years old would be a big mistake. A mistake that has already cost dear to eBay, fifteen years ago, ruler of the Chinese market and today cleared the square, and he bent even Google, whose founder Jerry Yang was happy to give in But what was left of the division of in exchange for a stake in Alibaba. Yang and Ma had met in ’97, when the first one was about a tourist in Beijing, and the second, low-ranking official of the Ministry of Commerce, was appointed to act as his guide on a visit to the Great Wall.
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