A swath of early investors in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will be able to sell more than $8 billion worth of shares on the day the Chinese e-commerce company goes public, an unusual arrangement that is influencing how bankers price the offering.
“This job is already hard, so this means it’s that much harder,” said Rett Wallace, chief executive of private-company research firm Triton Research LLC, referring to the effect of the unlocked shares on pricing decisions.
