Ma Yun, Alibaba's founder

Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province Photos: CFP

 

Following media reports that Alibaba Group has not fully given up on Hong Kong as its listing venue, Alibaba told the Global Times Sunday that the time and place of listing have not been decided yet.

In a meeting with Hong Kong media Friday, Ma Yun, the founder of Alibaba, said the company would not get listed this year which he is disappointed about, securities news portal stcn.com reported Saturday.

Ma believed that there is no conflict between Alibaba's management shareholding structure and the rules of Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited (HKEx), and HKEx just needs more time to accept the partnership, according to the report.

Ma said the majority of Alibaba's management team supports getting listed in an unnamed stock exchange in the US, from which it has received more positive feedback, and Alibaba will choose a venue that welcomes it, the report said.

If Alibaba gets listed in the US, the second listing will not be in Hong Kong but in the Chinese mainland, said the report.

The spokesperson of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) told the media that CSRC has not received the A-share initial public offering application from Alibaba, Securities Daily reported Saturday.

Li Xiaojia, CEO of HKEx, said Thursday in an article on the website of HKEx that protecting shareholders and giving founders special concessions are not in conflict if there is a properly designed system.

Hong Kong is faced with new challenges brought by emerging innovative companies, said Li, it might not be a serious loss for Hong Kong to lose one or two listing candidates but it would be regretful if Hong Kong loses a whole generation of innovative companies.

Ma said he had thought that getting listed would not be a complicated issue but from now on he would learn from the past and build up better communication with Hong Kong by trying to answer questions from Hong Kong media in three hours, according to the report.

Alibaba's IPO is expected to be more than $15 billion, which would make it one of the largest IPOs in the global Internet industry and a big attraction for stock exchanges around the world.