From Reuters via Financial Times:
Alibaba.com , China’s largest e-commerce company, confirmed on Monday that it is making preparations for an initial public offering, as it seeks to raise capital to expand its international presence.
Alibaba, which has long been rumoured as an IPO candidate, is preparing to list its business-to-business unit in Hong Kong in the third quarter of this year, the official China Securities Journal reported on Monday. “We have started preparations for an IPO,” Alibaba spokeswoman Christina Splinder said, but declined to comment on details. [Full Text]
See also: China’s Alibaba moving toward IPO from AP via Delawareonline.
[Image: Alibaba’s President Jack Ma, from AP photo, by Eugene Hoshiko]