Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the largest e-commerce company on the Chinese mainland, said onThursday that it has abandoned its plans to launch an initial public offering in Hong Kong.
"We've decided not to list in Hong Kong," Jonathan Lu, Alibaba's chief executive officer, said atthe company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
Lu added that Hong Kong authorities still need time to study and digest the innovativecorporate governance structures of knowledge-based companies, such as Alibaba.
Lu's statement is the company's first public reaction on its decision of dropping its IPO plans inHong Kong.
But despite the announcement that it's ruling out the Hong Kong stock exchange, Alibabahasn't put an end to the rumors now swirling about its choice of listing venue. Apart from theUnited States, the latest rumors indicate that the company might be considering launching theIPO in Shanghai.
Lu said the company has not yet decided to list on any other exchange, including the New YorkStock Exchange.
A representative at Alibaba added that the company has not yet decided on an IPO timetable.
The company - founded in 1999 by former English teacher Jack Ma - had initially planned to liston the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Joe Tsai, co-founder and executive vice-chairman of Alibaba, posted a blog entry at the end ofSeptember saying that Hong Kong was the company's top choice for the IPO.
"As a company with most of our business in China, it was natural for Hong Kong to be our firstchoice," Tsai wrote.
However, the two sides couldn't reach an agreement on Alibaba's unique shareholdingstructure - specifically the fact that 28 partners, mainly founders and senior executives, makeall the key operating decisions, despite only owning about 13 percent of the company. TheHong Kong stock exchange insisted that all shareholders should be treated equally.
A press release from Alibaba said that it welcomes the debate regarding its corporategovernance structure.
"The company has not officially submitted any kind of application and has never asked HongKong regulators for dual-class shares," the statement said. "Instead of listening to Alibaba'sreal needs, we are sorry to find that (the Hong Kong stock exchange) has reached itsconclusion based on gossip and non-existing facts. That's why we decided not to list in HongKong."
Alibaba's upcoming IPO is a very high-profile deal. Analysts and bankers have estimated thecompany could raise up to $15 billion, which is expected to be the biggest debut by atechnology company globally since Facebook Inc's $16 billion listing last year.
Financial analysts in Hong Kong said that the city's IPO market may go into virtual hibernationafter Alibaba dropped its listing plans.
"Alibaba's decision will affect the city's IPO market performance in 2013, as the number andvalue of deals surely will decline in 2013 compared with 2012, if there is no Alibaba listing,"Linus Yip, chief strategist at First Shanghai Securities Co, said in a previous interview.
Other analysts echoed that view.
"I'm not optimistic about the Hong Kong IPO market because fewer business conglomerateshave listed or will seek listings in the local IPO market," Kingston Securities Co' director DickieWong said.
"I predict the Hong Kong IPO market cannot retain its top-three position in 2013, when it comesto fundraising amounts."
The number of listings in Hong Kong in the first eight months of the year slumped 24.5 percentto 37, with the deals raising HK$44.9 billion ($5.78 billion), almost unchanged year-on-year,according to data from Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.
After reigning as the global IPO hub for several years, the city had $7.72 billion worth of dealsin 2012, the lowest volume since the 2008 global financial meltdown, according to Reutersdata.