Will Alibaba raise its IPO price?

The demand for Alibaba IPO shares is going wild! So wild that they have decided to raise its IPO price range from $66 to $68. Alibaba is a step closer to its IPO as much as $21,8 billion. Yahoo! Inc and other backers plan to offer as much as 320,1 million shares.

Alibaba`s Jack Ma have been on a roadshow, and told the investors that they will not seek too high a valuation, and they are offering the shares at a price-to-earnings multiple that`s below what other public traded Chinese Internet peers fetch.

Alibaba`s market value could be as high as $167,6 billion. China`s biggest search engine trades about 34 times estimates of this year`s earning. Tencent Holdings Ltd trades at 37 times, while Amazon trades to 133 times forecast 2014 earnings.

The average for similar Chinese Internet e-commerce companies trade at 43 times their earnings.

Alibaba will try to be a global company and plans to expand its business in U.S and Europe in addition to Asia. Ma said they will try to avoid a repeat of Alibaba.com`s failure which plummeted below its IPO price right after listing and ended up delisting the company in 2012.

Jack Ma listed the company at the peak of the Hang Seng in 2007 and delisted it at the bottom during the financial crises in 2008. The S&P traded at about 30 times earnings in 2000, but now it is trading at 18. The Alibaba IPO in 2007 was 257 times oversubscribed and we won`t see that kind again.

Jack Ma and Alibaba has been on the road for two weeks trying to meet investors and speak with them. They said they plan to set a final price for the shares on Sept 18. Trading start the day after, on friday 19.

Nasdaq rose to its highest since March 2000 this month. Is this the right timing for Alibaba?

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