May 07, 2014, 09:03 / Technologies

Alibaba files for IPO in the US

The filing says the internet giant aims to raise at least $1 billion, but analysts expect it to be the "patriarch of all offerings"; the platform for the IPO and its quantitative indicators have not yet been determined Natalya Raibman

Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

Internet giant Alibaba, which AP calls "the king of online commerce in China," has filed for an initial listing in the United States. The application was filed with the US Federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In it, the company announces its intention to raise at least $1 billion. AP notes that this IPO could cause rush demand and surpass the record of Facebook, which raised $16 billion in 2012. “This could be the patriarch of placements,” the agency quotes the forecast of the CEO of the research Sam Heimeda's PrivCo.

It has not yet been determined which exchange the placement will take place - the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. Alibaba did not say how many shares it would offer or at what price. AR expresses confidence that the deal will be profitable for the company's main shareholders, and that it will give American investors the opportunity to bet on the Chinese economy. 34.4% of Alibaba is owned by the Japanese Softbank, 24% by the American Yahoo!, the company's founder Jack Ma - 9%, and its vice president Joe Tsai - 3.6%. In its filing with the SEC, Alibaba noted that the Chinese market still has room to grow and that online trading in China could grow by more than 27% in the next two years, according to Chinese research firm iResearch. It may take several months to prepare for placement, AP notes.

Alibaba's materials say that after the IPO, the voting rights of its largest shareholder, Softbank, will be limited in favor of the company's founders, writes the Wall Street Journal . After the offering, shareholders will sign an agreement under which Softbank will have the right to nominate one candidate to the company's board of directors, but will not have the right to exclude directors nominated by Alibaba's controlling partners without the consent of Ma and Tsai. If the bank's share falls below 15%, it will lose the right to nominate its director to the company's board. It is expected that after the IPO, Softbank's share will still be more than 30%, but its voting rights will not be able to exceed this level, and it will have to transfer the excess to a "voting trust managed by Ma and Tsai. Informed sources of the newspaper say that Softbank does not yet have plans to sell Alibaba shares in the near future.

Alibaba operates popular e-commerce platforms in China - Taobao and Tmall. For the financial year that ended on March 31, 2013, the total volume of transactions completed on these sites exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($163 billion), Prime recalls. The company also operates the Alipay payment system, similar to PayPal. Alibaba has 231 million active users in China and 8 million active sellers, who spent a total of $248 million in 2013, the Washington Post recalls . The majority of the company's revenue comes from advertising revenue, commissions from merchants and membership fees. The company is experiencing the most powerful growth in the history of online commerce, Piper Jaffray analyst Eugene Munster told the publication. He considers this the main reason for the great interest from potential investors.