Alibaba Plans To List On NYSE

(RTTNews) - Alibaba Group Holding, in an amended filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, said it plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "BABA", as the Chinese e-commerce giant approaches its much awaited initial public offering.

The plans to have its shares listed on the NYSE goes against general expectations that Alibaba would prefer to patronize the Nasdaq Global exchange, in what is touted to be the largest ever IPO.

Nasdaq has been the abode for tech listings, made famous by companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Google and Apple, and in recent times, of Facebook. But the botched 2012 Facebook IPO turned out to be a sore point for Nasdaq as it led to investor confusion and harmed its reputation. Alibaba is set to take the path of Twitter, which also listed its shares on the NYSE.

Alibaba, which filed for the IPO in May, is expected to sell about a 12 percent stake, media reports said, citing people familiar with the matter. Estimates of Alibaba's valuation suggest it could raise as much as $20 billion, surpassing that of Facebook which raised $16.4 billion in its IPO. Analysts have valued Alibaba at more than $160 billion, but that may exceed $250 billion once it starts trading.

Alibaba operates China's largest online shopping destination, Taobao Marketplace, and third-party platform for brands and retailers, Tmall. It also operates Juhuasuan, China's most popular group buying marketplace by monthly active users. Alibaba accounts for about 80 percent of all Chinese e-commerce.

Co-founded in 1999 by former English teacher Jack Ma, Alibaba has benefited from sustained economic growth in China and has developed an all-encompassing retail ecosystem that ranges from payment systems to cloud computing services. The company sees strong prospects and has made acquisitions to broaden its offerings, invested in proprietary technologies and infrastructure.

For the full year 2014, Alibaba's revenues jumped over 52 percent to $8.45 billion and net income soared 170 percent to $3.76 billion.

Meanwhile, Alibaba's IPO is expected to be profitable to Yahoo Inc (YHOO), which has an about 23 percent stake in it. The search engine company is expected to sell about 10 percent of its Alibaba shares. As for other key stakeholders in Alibaba, co-founder Jack Ma owns 8.9 percent and Softbank owns 34.4 percent.