ALIBABA Group Holding raised US$317 million from the sale of about 33 million of US-traded shares of XPeng, a source familiar with the matter said.

Taobao China Holding, an Alibaba subsidiary, has priced the American depositary (ADR) shares at US$9.60 each, according to the source. The stake in the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker was marketed at US$9.60 to US$9.75 per ADR, the source said, asking not to be identified as the information is not public.

The pricing represents a 2.9 per cent discount to the Tuesday (Mar 19) closing price of XPeng’s ADRs of US$9.89 each. The ADRs traded at US$9.50 each in New York on Wednesday, a drop of nearly 4 per cent, after paring a slump of as much as 7.7 per cent.

An Alibaba representative did not 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 Wednesday. The US-traded shares were bought in September 2019 as part of a pre-IPO investment in the company.

Alibaba sold 25 million of XPeng’s shares in December. XPeng on Tuesday 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. BLOOMBERG

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