Alibaba Raises USD317 Million From Sale of Stake in XPeng

Taobao China Holding Ltd., an Alibaba subsidiary, has priced the American depositary shares at USD9.60 each, according to the person. The stake in the Chinese electric vehicle maker was marketed at USD9.60 to $9.75 per ADR, the person said, asking not to be identified as the information isn't public.

Local media outlet Sina Tech cited Alibaba sources at the time as saying the move was based on the company's capital management goals, with its stake dropping from 10.2% to 7.5% after the sale of the shares. Maybe it is raising funds for its own needs and focusing on its core competencies. The sale has nothing to do with Xpeng.

The pricing represents a 2.9% discount to the Tue closing price of XPeng's ADRs of $9.89 each. The ADRs traded at USD9.50 each in New York on Wed, a drop of nearly 4%, after paring a slump of as much as 7.7%.

An Alibaba representative didn't immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours in Asia.

The Alibaba unit disclosed its intention to sell 33 million XPeng ADRs in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier Wed. The US-traded shares were bought in Sep 2019 as part of a pre-IPO investment in the company.

Alibaba sold 25 million of XPeng's shares in Dec. XPeng on Tue terminated its agreement with Taobao China to nominate an Alibaba-chosen candidate as its director, according to a separate filing. The EV maker will continue collaborating with Alibaba in various areas such as research and development and marketing services, and will explore new business collaboration opportunities in the future, the filing showed.