Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) international online shopping unit is exploring an initial public offering (IPO) in the US as it weighs options to spur growth for the business that includes major e-commerce brands Lazada and AliExpress.
The firm is in the early stages of consideration and the IPO’s size has yet to be determined, people familiar with the matter said.
The business group is in talks with banks that could potentially help prepare for the IPO next year, said one of the people, who asked not to be named as the matter is private.
Photo: AFP
The unit, which competes with rivals such as Amazon.com Inc in markets outside China, is one of six parts that Alibaba Group Holding is splitting into.
If it goes ahead, the Alibaba unit would join other high-profile Chinese firms seeking to tap US capital even as tensions rise between the world’s two largest economies.
A listing in the US could help the business — formally Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (IDCG) — attract global investors wary of putting money directly into China.
Alibaba Group Holding in March unveiled plans to break up its empire into units such as e-commerce, logistics and the cloud, with each business potentially exploring fundraising and an IPO at an appropriate time.
The company would consider gradually giving up control of some of the businesses, Alibaba Group Holding chief executive officer Daniel Zhang (張勇) said at the time.
However, he declined to specify a timeline for any IPOs.
Deliberations around an IDCG IPO are preliminary and the situation might change, the people said.
IDCG said in response to queries from Bloomberg that there is no IPO plan.
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