Alibaba grocery unit IPO put on ice amid disappointing valuation – Bloomberg News

China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is putting a potential Hong Kong initial public offering of its Freshippo grocery chain on hold amid weak sentiment for consumer stocks, Bloomberg News reported on Friday citing sources.

Alibaba has concluded it could likely achieve a valuation of around $4 billion for Freshippo, which is lower than the $6 billion to $10 billion value it was targeting when it considered raising a private funding round last year, according to the report.

Finance chief Toby Xu said in May that Freshippo’s IPO will be completed in six to 12 months.

Alibaba’s capital management committee, which is overseeing the breakup of the company announced in March, recently decided to wait for a more favorable market before moving forward with a Freshippo IPO and will prioritize listings of other units, the report added.

Alibaba did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

U.S.-listed shares of the company were flat in early trading.