The company is in talks with six banks – Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Group, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley – for lead underwriting roles, which would yield an estimated $260m (£156m) in fees, according to Reuters.
The announcement ends months of speculation over where the Hangzhou-based group, which is expected to reach a value of $200bn (£120bn) by the end of this year, would hold its initial public offering.
In September last year, Alibaba indicated that it favoured New York because of its dual-class share structure, which would allow Jack Ma, the company’s founder, to remain in control.
Hong Kong’s stock market listing rules do not allow minority shareholders to have control over a company’s board of directors.
Last week, the Financial Times reported that Alibaba, which made a net profit of $801m (£482m) in Q3 last year, had stopped engaging with Hong Kong and was “95 per cent certain" to choose New York for its initial public offering.
In a statement, the company said that it would also consider listing on China’s capital market in future to share its growth with local investors.
The statement continued: “We wish to thank those in Hong Kong who have supported Alibaba Group. We respect the viewpoints and policies of Hong Kong and will continue to pay close attention to and support the process of innovation and development of Hong Kong.”
The announcement comes two days after Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, announced plans for a $500m (£301m) listing in the US.
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