Alibaba Group Holding, China's largest e-commerce firm, filed on Tuesday with the SEC to raise up to $1 billion in an initial public offering, although the deal size is likely just a placeholder. We estimate the deal could raise as much as $20 billion. If it does, Alibaba would be the world's largest IPO ever, above ABC Bank's $19.2 billion IPO (excluding greenshoe option) in July 2010.
The Hangzhou, China-based company, which was founded in 1999 and booked $7.9 billion in sales for the 12 months ended December 31, 2013, has not chosen a symbol or an exchange on which it will list. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Citi are the joint bookrunners on the initial filing, though we expect more underwriters to be disclosed in later filings. No pricing terms were disclosed.
