China's Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao club raises $132m

Jack Ma, right, Chairman of Alibaba Group, and Xu Jiayin, Chairman of Evergrande Group, shake hands at the listing ceremony for shares of Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club in Beijing, November 6, 2015. [Photo/IC]

GUANGZHOU - China's Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao football club has raised 869.36 million yuan ($132 million) by issuing shares on China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) market, the club said in a statement on Thursday.

The club was 60 percent owned by real estate company Evergrande Group and 40 percent by e-commerce giant Alibaba before the issuing.

Evergrande Group is now holding 56.71 percent and 37.81 percent for Alibaba after the club issued 21.73 million shares.

The club was listed in November and immediately announced its plan of expansion, raising up to 2.65 billion yuan ($402 million) by issuing up to 66.2 million shares on NEEQ.

A fund managed by Shenzhen's Foresea Kaynes Investment bought 4.59 million shares in the raising, becoming the third largest shareholder with 1.16 percent.

Guangzhou Evergrande have won their fifth consecutive title in domestic Chinese Super League and their second Asian Champions League trophy in three years. They finished fourth in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan last December.