Following Facebook’s (NasdaqGM: FB) 2012 initial public offering, Twitter (NYSEArca: TWTR) was the 2013 IPO nearly everyone was talking about. With little doubt, this year’s most awaited IPO is going to be China’s Alibaba.
When highly anticipated IPOs and the ensuing fanfare come along, some fans of exchange traded funds wonder which ETFs will be among the first to hold that hot IPO. When it comes to Alibaba, the KraneShares CSI China Internet Fund (NasdaqGS: KWEB) is likely to be among the first, if not the first, to own shares of Jack Ma’s company.
In an appearance on CNBC’s “Fast Money” Monday, KraneShares Managing Director Brendan Ahern said KWEB can fast track Alibaba into its lineup and add the stock following its eleventh day of trading.
KWEB tracks the CSI Overseas China Internet Index. ETFs adding hot IPOs soon after the stocks’ first trading day is not a new concept. In 2012, the Global X Social Media Index ETF (NasdaqGS: SOCL) made room for Facebook after that stocks fifth trading day. Last year, SOCL and the Renaissance IPO ETF (NYSEArca: IPO) added Twitter after that stock’s fifth trading day. [Twitter Enters IPO ETF}
There is already chatter that Alibaba, believed by some to be tricky to value because it is do not derive the bulk of its sales from e-commerce as does Amazon (NasdaqGM: AMZN), could post revenue this year that is almost quadruple that of Amazon’s.
Amazon has a market value of nearly $180 billion, or about triple that of Baidu (NasdaqGM: BIDU), KWEB’s second-largest holding. KWEB has a capping component that ensures none of its almost 25 holdings dominate the ETF. [China Internet ETF may not Need Alibaba]