Alibaba valued at up to $163bn in IPO filing

Some experts believe the eventual IPO price for Alibaba could be higher

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba finally provided more details on its much-awaited initial public offering late on Friday that would make it the biggest ever technology IPO in the United States and would value the whole company at up to $163 billion.

In an amended prospectus, Alibaba said it expects to price its American Depository Shares at between $60 and $66 a share, raising up to $21 billion and valuing the whole firm at up to $162.69 billion.

Some analysts had been expecting a valuation of more than $200 billion for Alibaba.

However, a market value of $163 billion would still make the Chinese e-commerce behemoth bigger than 95 per cent of companies in the S&P 500, according to Bloomberg data.

Some experts believe the eventual IPO price for Alibaba could be higher.

“I definitely think the final IPO price is going to be a lot higher than here,” Eric Jackson, founder of Ironfire Capital, told CNBC.

“I think Alibaba is probably going to try to follow the same track that Twitter did, where this initial price talk is just where the conversation begins ...

“I think there are a lot of institutional investors that would love to get their hands on Alibaba shares at that price.”

Alibaba is expected to announce a finalized IPO price around September 18 after a global roadshow for the offering expected to start on Monday in New York.

Yahoo is expected reduce its stake in Alibaba from more than 22 per cent to just over 16 per cent following the IPO.

Some potential buyers of Alibaba’s stock have been concerned by reports of potential conflicts of interest at the company and by its corporate governance practices that some view as unusual.

In a letter to investors, Alibaba founder Jack Ma addressed these concerns.

"When an Internet company of our scale that originated from China enters the global scene, you should expect that it will encounter skepticism from different directions due to differences in cultural perspectives, values and even geopolitical positioning," said Ma.

"While it may be difficult for a public Alibaba to side-step controversy, we hope that controversies generate constructive debate and add fresh perspectives to the dialogue on globalization."

Alibaba is responsible for roughly 80 percent of online retail sales in China, and handles more e-commerce than eBay and Amazon.com combined.