Alibaba raises $25 bn in history's biggest IPO

The News Minute | September 22, 2014 | 11:43pm IST New York : Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba collected $25 billion in the largest initial public offering ever after underwriters exercised an option to purchase additional shares, the company said Monday. The banks handling the IPO -- Citigroup Inc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley -- together bought some 48 million additional shares, which raised the total from $21.8 billion to almost $25 billion. Last Friday's IPO on the New York Stock Exchange overtook the $22.1 billion Agricultural Bank of China raised when it debuted in 2010 on the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges. Alibaba's launch was already Wall Street's biggest ever, surpassing the $19.7 billion Visa IPO of 2010 and the $16 billion Facebook offering of two years ago. IANS/EFE