Alibaba Celebrates Biggest IPO Ever
FBN’s Jo Ling Kent, Mark Yusko of Morgan Creek Capital Management and Mary Ann Bartels of Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Alibaba’s upscale launch party and who cashed in on the IPO.
Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) executives celebrated the company’s $25 billion IPO – the world’s largest IPO to-date – with a swanky party Friday at midtown Manhattan’s Cipriani restaurant.
FBN’s Jo Ling Kent, who attended the party, said CEO Jack Ma gave a speech recounting the amount of luck it took to carry off a successful IPO in the United States.
Ling Kent said Ma also told her that Americans shouldn’t be wary of investing in Alibaba, suggesting that newspaper reports have given Americans an inaccurate view of what it’s like in China.
Ma said he also has a very healthy relationship with the government, according to Ling Kent. While this might raise eyebrows for some American investors, Morgan Creek Capital Management CEO and CIO Mark Yusko says there shouldn’t be too much concern.
“I think a company of this size and scope needs the assurances of the government that they’re going to play a less dominant role than they maybe have in the past in Chinese enterprise, and I think you’re seeing something that has worked in their favor in the past,” explained Yusko.
For more on Alibaba’s IPO and the company’s future in the United States, watch the full video above.