The price falls short of the 188 Hong Kong dollars Alibaba had set as a ceiling last week, but it will still raise up to $12.9 billion, making it by far the largest public offering of the year.
“Secondary listings are an art form, not an exact science,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst for Asia Pacific at Oanda.
Alibaba wants to make sure its Hong Kong listing generates a lot of interest, so “they’re pricing at a level where I’m 100% sure those shares are going to be a lot higher on the day,” he added.
The company declined to comment.
Alibaba stopped taking orders from retail investors a half day earlier than planned, after seeing stronger-than-expected demand for the secondary listing.
The company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma raised $25 billion in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange that shattered records as the largest IPO in history.
In the secondary listing, eight Hong Kong shares will be equal to one of Alibaba’s New York-listed shares, the company said in a US regulatory filing last week.
Alibaba is scheduled to list shares on November 26.