Alibaba Grocery IPO on Backburner as Valuations Disappoint (1)

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is putting a potential Hong Kong initial public offering of its Freshippo grocery chain on the backburner amid weak sentiment for consumer stocks, people with knowledge of the matter said.

After early talks to sound out potential investors, the Chinese tech giant concluded it could likely achieve a valuation of around $4 billion for Freshippo in the listing, below its initial expectations, the people said. That’s lower than the $6 billion to $10 billion value the firm was targeting when it considered raising a private funding round at various points last year, the people said.

The ...