Chinese Internet giant Alibaba chose the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for an IPO

In the battle for the right to place shares of the Alibaba Group, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) became the winner.

Alibaba, the largest Chinese e-commerce company, officially announced in an updated offering circular that it plans to place its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BABA.
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For the NYSE, this is a big win, because it has competed with the Nasdaq Stock Exchange to become the primary IPO that promises to be the largest in US history. From reliable, anonymous sources, it is known that the company's shares may start trading in the first half of August.



Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma

Alibaba’s initial public offering will be the largest IPO of Internet companies conducted by the New York Stock Exchange. Two years ago, Facebook chose the Nasdaq Stock Exchange as the site for its IPO.

“We took part in a thorough and large-scale selection among stock exchanges and we are pleased to welcome the Alibaba Group on the New York Stock Exchange, where it will join our network of leading global brands,” the Nasdaq spokeswoman told the press: “Alibaba is an impressive company. and we wish them success in their initial public offering. ”

These two stock exchanges are constantly competing for promising IPOs, for a good listing fee and even more importantly, for the prestige of big names of companies that can attract other customers debuting in the stock market.

According to Renaissance Capital, this year most of the 142 IPOs accounted for the Nasdaq exchange, which represents approximately 57% of all placements. In part, this happened because the exchange continues to maintain its leading position in the placement of biotech stocks.

But the placements for which the New York Stock Exchange became a platform earned more money this year. These transactions brought in 18.8 billion dollars, which is approximately 62 percent of all money earned on the placement of money.

Moreover, this year the NYSE leads the placement of IPOs of technology companies: it placed shares of 20 firms, while the Nasdaq chose 16. This shattered the positions of Nasdaq, which has traditionally been a platform for placement of shares of technology companies.
One of the big victories of the NYSE is also the placement of Twitter shares - one of the biggest IPOs of last year.

But at the same time, Nasdaq managed to attract a number of Chinese Internet companies, including the search engine operator Baidu and Internet retailer JDcom.
Nevertheless, in recent months, several people aware of the decisions of Alibaba have said that the preference was given to the NYSE.

Perhaps one of the factors that influenced the decision of Alibaba’s executives was the failed Facebook IPO, which was accompanied by delays in sales and investor anger. All this spoiled the reputation of the Nasdaq.

The reason Alibaba has decided to hold an IPO in the United States is that it is convenient for both US exchanges to work with a nonstandard corporate structure of the Chinese retailer. Alibaba has a so-called partnership of 27 insiders who will nominate a majority of the board members.

This structure is not entirely similar to the system of two classes of shares, in which some investors have preferred shares, giving more voting rights. But this is already far from the principle of “one share - one vote”, which the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the domestic market of Alibaba, is guided by.

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