HONG KONG • Alibaba Group Holding called off plans for an investor luncheon in Hong Kong for its secondary listing amid intensifying protests in the city, according to sources.

The Chinese e-commerce giant is conducting investor meetings by phone rather than in person for its planned new share sale, citing logistics and safety concerns, said one of the sources, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Months of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have closed the city's airport at least twice, while its transit system is increasingly facing disrupted service. Citigroup, one of the underwriters on Alibaba's offering, warned staff to steer clear of dangerous places after one of its bankers was arrested in the financial district last week.

Companies that go public in Hong Kong typically arrange a luncheon with institutional investors on the day book-building commences.

A representative for Alibaba declined to comment on the roadshow schedule.

Alibaba's planned offering size has not changed as a result of the protests, Mr Michael Yao, the company's head of corporate finance, said on a conference call with investors last week.

Order books for its US$13.4 billion (S$18.2 billion) Hong Kong share sale have already been covered "multiple times", sources with direct knowledge of the matter said last Friday, as the e-commerce group kicked off its campaign for the secondary listing.

The sources said potential investors had been told that the "quality of demand is high" and that there "continues to be very strong feedback" about the deal.

Pricing of the shares for institutional shareholders will be set on Wednesday, a prospectus lodged with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange shows. Retail investors will not pay more than HK$188 per share, an auspicious number in Chinese culture.

In a first for the Asian financial hub, Alibaba said the initial public offering (IPO) would be fully automated and paperless to reflect its environmental standards.

Investment bankers familiar with the listing, however, said the move avoided a potential publicity nightmare of investors queueing at banks to place stock orders while protests raged around them.

The share sale is set to be Hong Kong's largest in more than nine years, and comes as Beijing seeks support from the semi-autonomous territory's tycoons and entrepreneurs to maintain a sense of business-as-usual in the face of more than five months of unrest.

Alibaba had originally considered a Hong Kong IPO in 2013, but ultimately chose New York for its primary listing after failing to gain approval from Hong Kong regulators for its unusual governance structure.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS