Alibaba Holdings Inc. will seek to raise $1-billion (U.S.) in what could become the largest technology debut in history, the Chinese e-commerce and payments giant said on Tuesday in a filing for its eagerly anticipated Initial Public Offering.
Alibaba, which powers four-fifths of all online commerce conducted in the world’s second-largest economy, becomes the largest Chinese corporation to have sought a home on U.S. bourses.
Former English schoolteacher and co-founder Jack Ma now owns 8.9 per cent of Alibaba. Yahoo Inc and Softbank own 22.6 per cent and 34.4 per cent of the company, which said on Tuesday it is still deciding between the New York stock exchange and the Nasdaq as a listing venue.
Its IPO has spurred levels of excitement in Silicon Valley and Wall Street circles unseen since Facebook Inc.’s record-breaking $16-billion coming-out party in 2012.
It will debut in a stock market where high-flying stocks like Twitter’s and Amazon’s have in past weeks been brought back to earth, in a selloff that has polarized Wall Street even as it revives doubts about soaring tech-sector valuations.
The proposed IPO size in Tuesday’s filing is an estimate for the purpose of calculating exchange registration fees. Analysts expect the company to eventually raise an amount surpassing Facebook’s, garnering a market value of more than $160-billion.
Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup will underwrite the IPO.
The filing sets the stage for the technology industry’s biggest initial public offering since short messaging service Twitter and its early investors collected $1.8-billion in its stock market debut last fall.
Although it’s not nearly as well-known as Facebook Inc., Alibaba has emerged as an e-commerce powerhouse that makes more money than Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. combined.
China’s Alibaba seeks $1-billion in U.S. initial public offering 
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