Alibaba Group Holding plans IPO launch next week

A person with knowledge of the process reported that the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd plans to launch its Initial Public Offering in the U.S. early in the week of September 8th, after concluding talks with US authorities, with tentative pricing on Sept. 18 and trading to start the following day.

The Chinese group Alibaba was previously planning to launch its IPO this week, but it has decided to postpone the start of its investor meetings related to the IPO by about a week in order to answer the questions that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) posed.

The company is expected to raise about $20 billion from the IPO, which would become the largest technology listing in the US. This result would compete with the $22.1 billion raised during the IPO of the Agricultural Bank of China in July 2010, which is currently the largest on record, and analysts project the after-listing valuation of Alibaba at some $200bn.

The so-called IPO “roadshow”, which is the meeting between the company with potential investors – had initially been expected to be held this week, with pricing of the offer set for as early as September 15th.

Alibaba is Chinas leading e-commerce company, with a number of websites and businesses, including its own online payment tools.

Alibabas two top online marketplaces, websites Taobao and Tmall, handled about $258 billion in transactions last year, more than Amazon and eBay put together.

The stock will list under the symbol “BABA” on the New York Stock Exchange.