Alibaba has revealed that its hotly-anticipated listing is to go to the NYSE under the ticker BABA – dealing a blow to rival NASDAQ.
The IPO, which is expected this summer, has some analysts predicting that as much as $20 bn could be raised in what will be the largest listing of a Chinese company in the US.
In a company filing of more than 300 pages, Alibaba, which handles four-fifths of online retail transactions in China, listed revenue of $5.66 bn and net income of $2.85 bn for the nine months ended December 31.
‘We participated in a comprehensive and deliberate exchange selection process and we are pleased to welcome Alibaba Group to the New York Stock Exchange where they will join our network of the world’s best companies and leading brands,’ says NYSE in a statement.
NASDAQ has long been the exchange of choice for technology companies, carrying listings for firms including Microsoft, Facebook, and Google, but competition is fierce between the two exchanges – with the NYSE winning Twitter last year following NASDAQ’s much-covered problems during Facebook’s 2012 IPO.
Despite this, data from Dealogic published earlier this year as part of its Investment BankIng Ratings suggests that the NYSE had already picked up 22 tech IPOs in 2014, compare to NASDAQ’s 17. Last year, the NYSE also boasted two more tech IPOs than its rival exchange.
The data suggests that NASDAQ is the superior exchange, however, in terms of the total value of deals placed. Though the two platforms were matched in 2013, NASDAQ’s tech IPOs had already totaled $97 bn in 2014, while $48 bn had been placed on the NYSE when the Dealogic data was published in May.
