The big talk in the world of initial public offerings is the imminent IPO from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Jack Ma’s company will likely makes its shares available to the public for the first time next Friday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “BABA.”
While the number of exchange traded funds expected to make room for Alibaba is limited for a variety of reasons, some will add the stock soon after its debut. The mere anticipation of being an “Alibaba ETF” has helped some ETFs trade higher. For example, the KraneShares CSI China Internet Fund (NasdaqGM: KWEB) is up nearly 7% over the past seven months. KWEB will add Alibaba after the stock’s eleventh trading day. [What Alibaba’s Valuation Means for ETFs]
Another ETF that is enjoying the run-up to the Alibaba offering is the Renaissance IPO ETF (NYSEArca: IPO). Up nearly 8% over the past three months, IPO is one of just two ETFs to hit a new 52-week high to this point in Thursday’s session. And because IPO is not yet 52 weeks (it debuted in October 2013), it is the only ETF making a new all-time high today.
Barring a surprise by another fund, IPO will be the first ETF to add Alibaba because its underlying index, the Renaissance IPO Index (IPOUSA), gives the ETF the flexibility to add stocks after just five trading days.
However, it is not just Alibaba anticipation that is fueling IPO’s recent run. The ETF’s largest holding is Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) and put simply, it is nice to have a weight of almost 11.2% to a stock that has surged 48.6% over the past 90 days. IPO was also one of the first ETFs to add Twitter to its lineup following the company’s November 2013 IPO.
An overlooked contributor to IPO’s ascent has been hotelier Hilton Worldwide Holdings (NYSE: HLT), which is up 9% over the past three months. Although Hilton is not an IPO in the truest sense of the term because it was once public only to be taken private in a leveraged buyout only to go public again in December 2013, a deal that once looked dreadful now looks excellent. A Bloomberg headline out today calls the Hilton LBO “The Best Leveraged Buyout Ever.”
And it should not be forgotten that IPO, the ETF, has a track record of quickly adding hot Chinese Internet IPOs.JD.com (NasdaqGS: JD), the Chinese online retailer, debuted in IPO on May 30. Since then, the ETF is up 11.1%. [IPO ETF Adds JD.com]
Renaissance IPO ETF
