Alibaba rules out changing partnership structure to gain Hong Kong listing
Mainland e-commerce giant says it will not revamp in order to meet HK listing regulations while defending plunge into fund management
Alibaba will not change its partnership structure in order to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange, executive vice-chairman Joe Tsai said yesterday.
"The one thing I can't understand is people think we're going to change our partnership structure just to accommodate a listing in Hong Kong. That's never going to happen," said Tsai, who also defended the company's move into fund management on the mainland.
"Hong Kong is a place where people take the one share, one vote principle very seriously," he said. "That's how they feel is the one thing that maintains the integrity of the market - I respect that."
Tsai's comments were the strongest defence so far by Alibaba of its partnership structure, putting the ball in Hong Kong's court to change its listing rules soon or risk losing what is potentially the biggest-ever initial public offering by an internet company, surpassing social media giant Facebook's US$16 billion listing in 2012.
The insistence on maintaining the existing shareholding structure keeps the doors open for a listing overseas, with New York and London having been raised as potential locations, although Tsai wrote in a blog post last year that Hong Kong was the "natural" first choice for Alibaba's listing.
The mainland e-commerce titan has been at odds with Hong Kong regulators, which last year rejected Alibaba's plans for a listing in the city with a shareholder structure that allowed a group of top managers and founders to nominate and control the board, while holding only about 13 per cent of the company's shares.