Comment / Alibaba's Cainiao – the classic 'canary in the coalmine'. Or?

ID 93999618 © Romolo Tavani | Dreamstime.com

Chinese monolith Alibaba intends to IPO its logistics business Cainiao, listing it on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 

How investors respond, some could argue, will serve as a roadmap for other logistics services providers considering a public listing – think of* long-standing candidate De Well – as well as Alibaba’s other peripheral businesses. Is that true?

(*…with the appalling JD Logistics Hong Kong IPO – which has led to massive value destruction so far – in mind.)

Open sesame

To understand Cainiao, we ...